With the 2026 FIFA World Cup wrapped up, Bell shared details on how its wireless network held up during the event, including the insane amount of data people used.
Bell said that during the 13 matches hosted in Canada (six in Toronto and seven in Vancouver), fans consumed more than 250TB of wireless data across the stadiums, venues, and watch parties, which is about the same as sharing 50 million photos or streaming 83,000 hours of HD video. Bell also carried an additional 80TB of wireless data across official FIFA Fan Festivals and municipal fan zones, bringing total wireless traffic to 330TB.
As a reminder, Bell invested more than $25 million to boost its network’s operations throughout the tournament.
Interestingly, Bell also noted that its command centre operated more than 10 hours per day throughout the tournament, with over 100 Bell employees and 15 external partners supporting the operation.
Switching over to the TV Side, Bell reported that over the 104 tournament matches that took place, it attracted a per-game average of 1.6 million viewers, which is an increase of more than 50 per cent compared to the previous tournament in 2022.
Bell also noted that the final between Spain and Argentina culminated in a record average audience of 6.4 million viewers (up 32 percent compared to 2022), and 14.6 million unique Canadian viewers across TSN, RDS, CTV, Noovo, and Crave. This made it the most-watched FIFA World Cup match ever in Canada, according to Numeris.
As for the Men’s Canadian games, the Round of 16 match vs Morocco attracted an average audience of 5.4 million viewers, which Bell noted was the most-watched match of any non-final ever. Canada’s matches against both Qatar and South Africa also saw similar numbers, reaching both 5.3 million and 5.2 million, respectively.
According to Bell’s press release, Spain vs Argentina, Canada vs Morocco, and Canada vs Qatar were the top three most-watched matches of the whole tournament.
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