Snap’s Kahlen Macaulay looks at why 2026 will be the year where sport is most watched, connected and branded.
Pulitzer-winning US playwright Neil Simon was once asked why humans find sport so captivating. His reply? “It’s the only entertainment where, no matter how many times you go back, you never know the ending.”
Simply, sport is storytelling. It combines high stakes and narrative with community, escapism and emotional release. It reflects universal themes and social values. And it’s why many of us wish away the summer for each new football season, and decimate our sleep schedules for every Superbowl or winter Ashes Test.
Yet the way we experience sport is transforming, led by multi-screen viewing, digital fans and creator-led commentary. Ofcom data shows that nearly two-thirds of adults use their phones while watching television, and sports fans are no different. It’s not an attention issue, sports viewing has become a hub for connection, with tournaments, teams and athletes sparking conversations and deepening friendships. This fandom around sport is what drives its success and engagement: it’s becoming participatory, personality-led and keeps fans talking long after the final whistle.
With the Fifa World Cup and the Winter Olympics approaching, next year is set to redefine engagement and fandom again. For the brands that understand content, culture and connection, it’s a year of opportunity worth more than £75bn.
Sports will become the world’s most powerful cultural force
The 2022 World Cup was the most viewed sporting event ever. But Fifa expects 2026 viewership to reach around 6bn people, placing brands in front of 73 per cent of the world’s population.
This growth follows a year of striking sport-culture intersections: Oasis fans donning Adidas-branded football shirts, F1 legend Lewis Hamilton co-chairing the Met Gala and Barbie releasing a doll of US rugby star Ilona Maher.
Sport naturally builds connection: in a 2025 Alter Agents Study, commissioned by Snap, two in three people said sport is an important part of their lives, and 86% talk about it with friends or family at least once a month. As sport’s influence spills into culture, brands looking to tap into meaningful communities will show up where these conversations happen.
Friendship may seem like a soft metric for businesses deciding where to spend, but it means audiences are relaxed, joyful and engaged when they interact with brands. Some 61 per cent of Snapchatters like to text their friends during a game, and sports sponsorship will certainly grow again next year as marketers come to understand the commercial power of showing up in those moments. Almost two-thirds of digital platform users say they’re more likely to remember brands sponsoring major sporting events, and three in five are more likely to purchase from brands supporting the World Cup – especially those endorsed by favourite players or teams.
Expect more crossovers next year: festivals partnering with football teams, major broadcasts featuring creator talent and global brands building culture-led campaigns where sports fans anticipate and discuss tentpole moments.
The future of sport is story-first, not score-first
The World Cup will dominate 2026, but it’s just one part of a broader shift reshaping the sports calendar.
British sport is riding a wave of momentum after recent tournament wins for the Lionesses and the Red Roses. The Women’s Euro final drew a peak TV audience of 16.22m and sparked lasting interest; viewership of the following season’s Women’s Super League rose by 138 per cent.
Women’s rugby, tennis and other sports are experiencing similar growth, driven by a new emphasis on storytelling. Behind-the-scenes shows like Drive to Survive have turned technical sports into character-driven universes, with over half of US F1 fans crediting the docuseries for their interest. These formats and broadcasting choices offer fans more to invest in emotionally. The stakes are higher, fans have more to discuss and debate in their group chats and on match day, an exhilarating game becomes even more compelling.
Next year, we can expect sports organisations to double down on storytelling through player POVs, locker-room content, and leveraging the biggest sporting stars as creators in their own right. More sports will combine numbers and narratives to hook newcomers.
Golf becomes far more thrilling when you know Rory McIlroy has a 2.4 per cent chance of making a putt – and then watch him sink it. People may not follow a sport, but they’ll follow an athlete or narrative all the way to the podium. We see the impact of this in football fan circles all the time, whether it’s Erling Haaland’s selfies, Cole Palmer’s one liners, or fan-created jokes.
2026’s will power brands’ biggest opportunities
Earlier this year, a match between Nottingham Forest and Fulham FC was dubbed ‘the Snapchat Derby’ after players’ Alex Iwobi and Ola Aina’s prolific online presences. It was a fan-led joke that drove league-wide attention to the match, with even the teams leaning into the joke, proving that the more proximity fans have to their favourite athletes, the closer they feel to the game.
Next year won’t just be the biggest year for sport, it’ll be the year fandom becomes the cultural calendar. Fans and group chats will already dissect every minute of next year’s tentpole moments. Brands that can feed into these conversations authentically will win. And there’s many more ways to participate beyond being a logo on a team shirt: sponsored fan zones, branded AR experiences, exclusive athlete-led content, and community-first activations all foster genuine affinity and consideration in peak cultural moments.
After all, almost nine in ten (85 per cent) of us watch major sporting events like the Euros, the Olympics and Super Bowl. Few moments unite audiences or spark collective conversation at this scale. Next year, missing out won’t be an option.
Kahlen Macaulay, is Head of Sports & Media Partnerships EMEA at Snap Inc