• by Joe Mandese , Yesterday

What a difference a World Cup makes. For the month of June, it meant a 19.3% surge in U.S. ad spending vs. the same month a year ago, according to just-refreshed data from Guideline's U.S. Ad Market Tracker.

And while it is only a once-every-four-years event, the incremental ad spending associated with the 2026 FIFA games was enough to reverse an otherwise decelerating U.S. ad marketplace, which -- with the exception of February's Winter Olympic Games -- has been expanding in the low single digits so far this year.

"There was almost $400 million incremental associated with the World Cup coming in June," estimates Guideline Chief Insights and Analytics Officer Sean Wright, noting: "July will also see a one-time spike as well."

Significantly, most of that incremental ad spending benefited the national TV advertising marketplace, which expanded 36% over June 2025, thanks to World Cup coverage on Fox and Telemundo.