It’s nearly here. World Cup 2026 kicks off in the United States, Canada and Mexico. There are 48 teams, 104 matches and six weeks of football, all the way up to the final on 19 July.
Ireland fought back brilliantly to reach the playoffs, then lost to Czechia on penalties back in March. Now it’s at least another four years before we get a shot at the World Cup. Every Irish football fan knows how much that one hurt.
Heartbreak aside, it hasn’t stopped us caring one bit. We looked at the search numbers, and Ireland is still mad about the World Cup.
How we worked it out
We pulled average monthly Google search volumes for the World Cup terms everyone’s typing in right now (things like “FIFA World Cup”, “World Cup 2026”, “how to watch World Cup 2026” and “World Cup live stream 2026”) for every county in Ireland.
To keep it fair, we measured searches per 100,000 people. That levels the playing field and shows where the obsession really runs deepest, head for head.
The top 10 most World Cup-obsessed counties
- Dublin (1,773 searches)
- Wexford (1,525 searches)
- Louth (902 searches)
- Kildare (896 searches)
- Westmeath (852 searches)
- Cork (837 searches)
- Carlow (823 searches)
- Wicklow (802 searches)
- Waterford (793 searches)
- Galway (792 searches)
Dublin is Ireland’s most World Cup-obsessed county, with a whopping 1,773 searches per 100,000 people. Wexford ranks in second place with 1,525 searches per 100,000, punching miles above its weight and out-searching much larger counties like Cork, Galway and Limerick on a per-head basis. If anyone tells you Wexford is all hurling, point them to this table.
Louth (902), Kildare (896) and Westmeath (852) complete the top five.
Cork lands in sixth on 837 searches per 100,000 people. As the biggest county outside the capital, Cork actually racks up the second-highest raw search volume in the country at 4,890, but once you measure it per head, it slips to sixth, proof that sheer size doesn’t equal the deepest obsession. Just behind comes Carlow in seventh (823), one of the smallest counties on the list yet more World Cup-mad per person than counties many times its size. Wicklow takes eighth place with 802 searches per 100,000 people, keeping Leinster well represented at the top.
Completing the top ten are two counties carrying the flag for the south and west. Waterford sits ninth on 793, the second Munster County to make the cut after Cork and a reminder that the appetite for the World Cup is alive and well.
And in tenth, on 792, is Galway, the only Connacht County to break into the top ten and comfortably the province’s most World Cup-obsessed. Leinster runs the show, with seven of the top ten, but the truth is that every county in the country is still searching, still planning and buzzing for the games to begin.
Mary McGuire, Head of Sponsorship at Legacy Communications commented: “Even after Ireland’s playoff heartbreak, the World Cup still has a huge emotional pull here in Ireland. From Dublin’s sheer volume to standout interest in places like Wexford and Carlow, fans across the country are gearing up for kick-off in their own way; whether that’s 4am watch parties or just keeping up with the drama. It really shows that for Irish fans, the World Cup isn’t only about who’s playing, it’s about being part of a global sporting moment.”