Jul 28, 2026 · 20 min · 11 segments
The World Cup delivered FMCG sales uplifts across markets, but the underlying sources differed dramatically. UK beer and supermarket sales surged, France saw match-dependent spikes, US growth…
In the United Kingdom alone, shoppers bought the equivalent of 314 million pints of lager during the four weeks ending July 11th.
British pubs reportedly sold approximately 30 million more pints than during a normal trading period, generating an estimated 150 million pounds in additional sales.
That sounds like a major commercial success, but the World Cup did not create the same result everywhere.
In the Netherlands, research by Hiper concluded that the major supermarket World Cup campaigns added less than 1% to revenue after correcting for existing market growth.
Heeper also concluded that the overall supermarket revenue growth recorded during the second quarter came entirely from inflation.
fresh and frozen pizza sales increased by more than 30%.
In the United States, the host market, beer sales in bars, restaurants, stadiums, and other venues increased by 14% in the host cities during the first four weeks of the tournament.
Across the entire country, however, growth was only 4%.
Supporters drank 290,000 beers during just six matches in Philadelphia, and some Boston venues required emergency beer deliveries to keep serving fans.
During one important tournament week, energy drink unit sales increased by 10%, non-alcoholic beer cases by 10.9%, and pre-mixed cocktails by 25.4%.
Super premium domestic beer cases increased by a much more modest 2.2%.
Before the tournament, only around one quarter of German retailers said they were stocking World Cup promotional products, The German Retail Association expected only a modest national sales effect because the tournament was taking place outside Germany and because much would depend on how far the German team progressed.
Yet German supermarkets did record enormous increases in several matchday categories during late June.
Sales of ice cream increased by 90% compared with an average summer week.
Still water increased by 77%, sparkling water by 63%, beer mixes by 63%, alcohol-free beer by 38%, lemonade by 34%, and cola by 32%.
So how much of that growth came from football? How much came from the weather? And how much would have happened even if no football had been played at all? Then consider Scandinavia.
Norway experienced one of the most dramatic effects because its national team performed unexpectedly well.
Norwegian brewer Aas reported that beer sales increased by 19% during weeks 23 to 27 compared with the previous year.
In the United Kingdom alone, shoppers bought the equivalent of 314 million pints of lager during the four weeks ending July 11th.
British pubs reportedly sold approximately 30 million more pints than during a normal trading period, generating an estimated 150 million pounds in additional sales.
That sounds like a major commercial success, but the World Cup did not create the same result everywhere.
In the Netherlands, research by Hiper concluded that the major supermarket World Cup campaigns added less than 1% to revenue after correcting for existing market growth.
Heeper also concluded that the overall supermarket revenue growth recorded during the second quarter came entirely from inflation.
fresh and frozen pizza sales increased by more than 30%.
In the United States, the host market, beer sales in bars, restaurants, stadiums, and other venues increased by 14% in the host cities during the first four weeks of the tournament.
Across the entire country, however, growth was only 4%.
Supporters drank 290,000 beers during just six matches in Philadelphia, and some Boston venues required emergency beer deliveries to keep serving fans.
During one important tournament week, energy drink unit sales increased by 10%, non-alcoholic beer cases by 10.9%, and pre-mixed cocktails by 25.4%.
Super premium domestic beer cases increased by a much more modest 2.2%.
Before the tournament, only around one quarter of German retailers said they were stocking World Cup promotional products, The German Retail Association expected only a modest national sales effect because the tournament was taking place outside Germany and because much would depend on how far the German team progressed.
Yet German supermarkets did record enormous increases in several matchday categories during late June.
Sales of ice cream increased by 90% compared with an average summer week.
Still water increased by 77%, sparkling water by 63%, beer mixes by 63%, alcohol-free beer by 38%, lemonade by 34%, and cola by 32%.
So how much of that growth came from football? How much came from the weather? And how much would have happened even if no football had been played at all? Then consider Scandinavia.
Norway experienced one of the most dramatic effects because its national team performed unexpectedly well.
Norwegian brewer Aas reported that beer sales increased by 19% during weeks 23 to 27 compared with the previous year.
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