LOS ANGELES -- A new study from SmartFocus.ai, the AI-powered virtual focus group platform, finds that the 2026 World Cup generated widespread enthusiasm among Americans but little evidence of lasting soccer fandom.

The findings help explain a gap in recent public polling. A late June survey by Ipsos Sports for The Associated Press found that six in ten Americans believe the World Cup is making the country more interested in soccer, yet only 24 percent said it has made them personally more interested. The SmartFocus.ai study points to a likely explanation: Americans see excitement all around them and assume the country is falling for the sport, while few say it has happened to them.

The World Cup Fandom Study was conducted during the tournament's final week. It ran five focus groups, each representing a different audience segment: diehard soccer fans, casual viewers, non-fans, soccer parents, and adults 18 to 29. Each group included eight AI personas. Every segment expressed significant warmth toward soccer, but none showed signs of becoming long-term fans. Participants also reported a sharp decline in personal interest after the US team's July 6th elimination, even as national television ratings for the tournament remained at record highs. The tournament's quarterfinal round, played entirely without the U.S. or Mexico, averaged 15.64 million viewers on Fox, making it the most-watched World Cup quarterfinal round ever on English-language American television, according to Nielsen.

"The World Cup did its job, it got people to watch," said Stefan Pollack, co-founder of SmartFocus.ai. "The real test for US Soccer, MLS, and the networks starts now: can they tell a first-time viewer exactly where to go next? Right now the answer is no, and that's a fixable problem, not a fandom problem. The audience that shows up for a once-every-four-years event isn't the same as the audience you build a league around, and our findings point to some very specific, very solvable steps for closing that gap before the enthusiasm fades."

"We didn't just want to know if Americans showed up for the World Cup. We wanted to know if they'd still be watching months from now," said Erik Deutsch, co-founder of SmartFocus.ai. "TV ratings and human polling already answered the first question. Traditional focus group research to answer the second would have taken weeks or months and a significant budget. With SmartFocus.ai, we ran five AI-powered focus groups in just a few hours and got meaningful insight into the reasoning behind the enthusiasm. That let us build a set of concrete recommendations for what US Soccer, MLS, and the networks could do next."

As one AI persona in the study's 18-to-29 group put it, soccer interest in the U.S. is "a spike, not a habit." That sentiment reflects the current trajectory, but the study's findings also point to specific, actionable steps that could make today's enthusiasm more lasting.

KEY FINDINGS

• The belief that America fell for soccer is geographic. Participants near a host city or connected to youth soccer were most likely to believe the country converted because of hosting. Participants outside those circles saw little change. Several described the tournament as something happening on television, not in their daily lives.
• The handoff is broken. Participants who said they'd want more soccer after the final could not name which league, channel, or app would come next. The World Cup drew the crowd, but nobody could say where the next game would be, and several participants said they assumed that following the sport further would mean another subscription or a hard-to-find schedule.
• The interest that outlasts the tournament is rooted in kids and heritage. The only participants watching avidly were connected through family, community, or a soccer club they already loved. A child who plays the sport, a family viewing tradition, or a personal tie to a national team came up repeatedly as the reason interest survived past the tournament.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The study identifies four specific moves US Soccer, MLS, and the networks could make to retain the audience the World Cup just brought to the sport.

• Answer "what do I watch next, and where?" before excitement fads. Offer one clear, heavily promoted destination with schedules, free highlights, and plain-language stakes.
• Sell occasions, not fandom. Weekend watch events built around practical logistics (low-cost, kid-friendly, easy to find) align with how Americans actually engaged with the World Cup.
• Invest through the channels that already work: kids and heritage. These are identifiable, reachable audiences, and they represent the sport's best path to growth.
• Position MLS as an occasional outing, not a weekly commitment. Meeting audiences where they are beats asking them to convert.

ABOUT THE METHODOLOGY

SmartFocus.ai has a full methodology summary alongside the study's findings. It details how the research was designed and states plainly what AI-powered focus groups can and cannot show. As part of that transparency, SmartFocus.aiidentified and disclosed a known limitation of the method: all 40 AI personas recalled that the U.S. hosted the 1994 World Cup at a rate no real-world sample would match. This was interpreted as a sign of the underlying AI model's training rather than authentic public recall. That data was excluded from the study's published findings. The study was benchmarked against public polling from Ipsos/AP and CBS News/YouGov, and SmartFocus.ai will reconvene the same 40-persona panel in October 2026 to determine whether the findings held.

A detailed methodology summary, full findings brief, and quote sheet are available upon request.

ABOUT SmartFocus.ai

SmartFocus.ai is an AI-powered virtual focus group platform that delivers fast, professional-grade qualitative insights from simulated audiences and experts on demand. The platform conducts moderated real-time discussions and generates structured insight reports with key takeaways and recommendations. Users can revisit focus groups over time, transforming what has traditionally been a one-time research exercise into an ongoing strategic resource. SmartFocus.ai was founded by communications professionals Erik Deutsch and Stefan Pollack to make professional-grade insight accessible to organizations of all sizes. Plans start at $99 for a single session. The company was developed with support from Microsoft for Startups. SmartFocus.ai is headquartered in Los Angeles. Follow us @GetSmartFocus on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube. Learn more at SmartFocus.ai.