AppsFlyer has released a new report titled “Scoring Big: The Complete Marketer’s Guide to the World’s Top Soccer Event”, offering brands a data-led playbook to capitalise on the 2026 edition of the world’s biggest football tournament.
The report has been developed in collaboration with Sensor Tower and M+C Saatchi Performance. It draws on billions of installs and remarketing conversions from the 2022 tournament to outline how marketers can convert short-term spikes in attention into sustained growth, stronger retention and higher lifetime value (LTV) across streaming, CTV, mobile, retail and digital ecosystems.
“With 104 football matches across three countries and 16 cities, the world’s biggest football event will be the largest edition to date, creating a rare five-week window of sustained global attention and commercial intensity. What Scoring Big makes clear is that brands can’t treat 2026 as a five-week sprint – it’s a marketing stress test and an amplifier,” said Sarah Maina, Regional Manager, Middle East & France, AppsFlyer. “Winning requires the ability to localize at scale, orchestrate every touchpoint across streaming, CTV, mobile, and retail, and measure it all with clarity and confidence.”
Mobile demand spikes during matches
The study identifies several “micro-windows” of high consumer intent during the tournament period.
Streaming app installs jumped 46% on opening day and remained 41% higher throughout the first week, highlighting how live moments can accelerate acquisition when onboarding is seamless.
Retail apps recorded 2–3 times year-on-year growth compared to 2021, as the tournament coincided with Black Friday and Cyber Week, intensifying competition and boosting short-term purchase intent.
Food delivery installs rose 15% globally on opening day, with South America recording the strongest tournament-wide growth at +6.7%, indicating that football culture can drive incremental adoption beyond regular usage spikes.
Sports news installs surged 72% on opening day and stayed 56% above average during week one. Meanwhile, sports gaming installs climbed 18% above November averages and held 9% above average in the first week, reflecting a shift from passive viewing to interactive engagement.
A three-phase marketing framework
Beyond category performance, the report outlines a three-phase campaign structure built around measurement and retention.
In the pre-event phase, brands are encouraged to invest early while acquisition costs are lower and audience anticipation is building. During the event, marketers should activate in real time around key matches, when attention peaks in predictable waves. Post-event strategies should focus on sustained engagement, with a clear retention plan aimed at converting short-term attention into long-term growth.
The report also stresses the need to connect physical and digital touchpoints and validate results through what it describes as a “measurement trifecta” of attribution, incrementality testing and media mix modeling (MMM).
Jonathan Briskman, Director of Market Insights at Sensor Tower, said, “Sports fans don’t experience major tournaments on one screen. They move between TV, mobile, and web, and that changes how brands should plan. Additionally, the biggest opportunities are often adjacent to fandom: ordering food, placing a bet, booking travel, or following real-time scores. Winning strategies connect those moments into one seamless journey.”
Jonathan Yantz, Managing Partner at M+C Saatchi Performance, added, “Tournament periods bring intense competition and creative fatigue. The brands that perform best are the ones that plan ahead, test localized creative, and activate in ways that feel authentic to fans, especially through language nuance, community-led messaging, and creators who can produce content natively for each platform.”
The report positions the 2026 tournament not merely as a short-term marketing opportunity but as a high-stakes test of brands’ ability to plan, localise and measure performance across an increasingly fragmented media landscape.
