TikTok has become Australia’s second screen for the FIFA World Cup 2026
With more than 10.5 million Australians using TikTok each month and sports content generating billions of video views locally, the platform is becoming one of the most important places for sports
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TikTok has become Australia’s second screen for the FIFA World Cup 2026
The FIFA World Cup is still watched on television. But increasingly, it’s experienced on TikTok.
Earlier this year, it was announced that FIFA and TikTok partnered to bring millions of fans even closer to the action at the FIFA World Cup 2026™as part of a ‘first-of-its-kind Preferred Platform agreement’.
The agreement builds on the groundbreaking tie-up between FIFA and TikTok for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™, which resulted in tens of billions of views.
Running until the end of 2026, central to the new agreement is TikTok’s GamePlan initiative - a comprehensive product suite that allows sports teams, leagues, and broadcasters to drive discovery, deepen engagement, and deliver real business results.
The new partnership also unlocks significant opportunities for official FIFA World Cup 2026 Media Partners on TikTok, including, the ability to:
Live-stream parts of matches
Post more curated clips
Access special content produced by FIFA for TikTok
With more than 10.5 million Australians using TikTok each month and sports content generating billions of video views locally, the platform is becoming one of the most important places for broadcasters, brands, creators and rights holders to connect with football fans.
Here are some of the ways that partnership is showing up in Australia…
SBS has turned its TikTok into an extension of its broadcast
In 2023, SBS secured the Australian broadcast rights to the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, maintaining its unbroken FIFA World Cup broadcast record, having aired every tournament since 1986.
In the lead up to the tournament, the broadcaster secured a strong portfolio of broadcast partners including Hyundai, Hisense, Macca’s, Rexona, bet365, Commonwealth Bank and Youi.
Since the beginning of the tournament, The broadcaster and its sponsors have already seen strong returns. Despite the less-than-ideal time zones, 11.6 million Australians tuned into SBS’s coverage during the first nine days of the tournament.
Complementing SBS’s broadcast is its presence on TikTok
SBS’s @sbssportau TikTok channel is filled with content that keeps fans engaged before, during and after matches, including:
Match highlights
Pre-match predictions and activations
Educational explainers
Player profiles
Team arrivals
Fan interviews
Behind-the-scenes footage
Creator collaborations
Fan reactions
One of TikTok’s greatest strengths is that it transforms spectators into contributors
Instead of simply watching football, fans are actively participating by reacting to goals, debating refereeing decisions, sharing memes, posting predictions and creating their own content.
This behaviour has become increasingly normal for sports fans - Research commissioned by TikTok and conducted by OMD just found that three in four TikTok sports fans (5.8 million Aussies) now use the platform for sports content weekly, with many engaging daily to follow highlights, reactions, and commentary as it unfolds.
Meanwhile:
85% engage with TikTok while watching live sport
62% watch major sporting events specifically to participate in the cultural conversation surrounding them
Sport is no longer confined to just the game.
Creators have become key to FIFA’s global growth strategy
How fans engage with sports has shifted dramatically thanks to the growth of non-traditional digital media platforms and this has given rise to the ‘creator economy’ that sits among Australian sports media.
Related: The rise of the sports creator economy
One of the most significant parts of FIFA’s agreement with TikTok is its investment in creators
Rather than relying solely on official content, the FIFA and TikTok have built a creator programme designed to tell the story of the tournament through fan-first, creator-led storytelling.
The suite of Australian creators that form part of the partnership’s global roster of creators includes:
These creators are helping brands leverage their football partnerships in ways that traditional media can’t.
For example, Kat Sasso partnered with Hisense to promote its “Hisense Hangout” (here) and Macca’s to promote McDonalds is offering limited-time FIFA World Cup 26™ Meals - below.
Related: How brands are showing up around the FIFA World Cup 2026
TikTok is creating entirely new sponsorship inventory for broadcasters, teams & leagues
One of the most interesting outcomes of the FIFA World Cup has been the growth of official accounts.
TikTok’s GamePlan actively funnels fans towards official FIFA, broadcast, team and player accounts, helping convert casual viewers into long-term followers.
The growth has been substantial:
@sbssportau grew to over 1.1 million followers on TikTok at the end of June, more than quadrupling its follower count prior to the tournament
SBS has generated over 400 million video views from its World Cup related content across all its channels on TikTok in June
@socceroos are on pace to triple their follower count and become the most followed Australian sports team on TikTok by the end of the tournament
These larger audiences allow broadcasters and sporting organisations to develop branded-content throughout (and long after) the tournament to activate official sponsorships and generate incremental revenue.
Some branded content examples worth noticing:
@sbssportau
Hisense Hangout - here
Watch parties, hosted by Nickstav_ and sponsored by Macca’s - below
The Football Verse - Youi Insurance - here
@socceroos:
CommBank Diary Room - below
Breakfast Quickfires presented by Bluestone Lane - here
Socceroos arrival at Qantas LAX Hanger - here
FIFA Sponsors
VISA and Rexona have sponsored the official ‘Collect & Play’ and ‘FIFA World Cup 2026 Search Hub’ within TikTok’s Game Plan Hub.
Rather than simply increasing reach during the FIFA World Cup 2026, TikTok is helping broadcasters. rights-holders, players and brands build owned audiences that remain commercially valuable long after the tournament finishes.
TikTok is becoming critical infrastructure for sport
The FIFA x TikTok partnership case study is one of many examples that illustrates TikTok’s importance within the new sports media landscape.
TikTok has been working closely with Australian sporting organisations behind the scenes for years, helping them grow audiences, reach younger fans and experiment with new ways to tell stories. Many sports are now leveraging the platform in increasingly creative ways.
Related: TikTok is playing a key role in shaping the future of sports
Last calendar year, Australian sports such as AFL, NRL and Tennis actively partnered with TikTok and cracked 1 billion video views.
Codes without active partnerships have still managed to sit in the hundreds of millions of views, but when TikTok works actively with a sport, the numbers move dramatically.
“The TikTok effect” extends beyond the phone screen
Online media is revolutionising the way sport is experienced and it’s often the entry point (top of funnel) for younger fans - A previous survey from Deloitte found that 90%+ of Gen Z fans use social media to consume sports content.
In addition, TikTok-commissioned research, conducted by Ipsos found that after viewing sports content on the platform, fans surveyed were more likely to take action beyond simply watching videos.
The research found that:
42% will go on to tune in via TV or streaming services
36% will go on to look up more information about the sport
27% will go on to buy something they saw an athlete wearing, using, or promoting
23% will go on to attend a sporting event
TikTok isn’t the only big-tech company investing in the FIFA World Cup 2026
The tournament has become a battleground among the world’s largest digital platforms, each racing to become the destination where fans watch, discuss, create and engage with football.
Meta launched new football features and experiences to Threads, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, including athlete content, match content, and in-product activations.
YouTube partnered with FIFA and is providing the ability for Media Partners to publish extended highlights, behind-the-scenes footage, Shorts and video-on-demand content. American influencer and online streamer, IShowSpeed (55M+ YouTube subscribers) also recently struck a deal with FIFA, Fox, and YouTube to stream live FIFA World Cup games.
Snapchat is rolling out immersive World Cup experiences with creators, athletes, AR, and real-world activations for its 215M Snapchatters who watch sports content per month
Netflix unveiled ‘FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition’ - a soccer simulation game developed and published by Delphi Interactive, available exclusively on Netflix
The sports media landscape has fundamentally changed, and so has the fan experience
Watching the match is now only one part of following the tournament. Fans are simultaneously consuming highlights, debating decisions, following creators, discovering brands, interacting with athletes and sharing their own content across TikTok.
For broadcasters like SBS, the platform has become an extension of the live broadcast
For brands, it provides new sponsorship inventory and richer storytelling opportunities
For creators, it has created an entirely new role within the sports media ecosystem
For rights holders, it has become one of the most powerful tools for growing audiences and building fandom
As major sporting events become increasingly digital-first, success will no longer be measured solely by television audiences. It will be measured by how effectively organisations own the conversation happening alongside the game.
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