Focus groups using AI personas find real enthusiasm for the tournament, but little evidence it converted Americans into lasting soccer fans
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A new study from SmartFocus.ai, the AI-powered virtual focus group platform, finds that the 2026 World Cup produced widespread enthusiasm among Americans but little evidence of lasting soccer fandom.
The findings help explain a gap in recent public polling. A late June survey by Ipsos Sports for The Associated Press found that six in ten Americans believe the World Cup will make the country more interested in soccer, yet only 24 percent said it has made them personally more interested. The SmartFocus.ai study points to a likely explanation: Americans see excitement all around them and assume the country is falling for the sport, while almost nobody says it happened to them.
SmartFocus.ai was founded by longtime PR professionals Erik Deutsch, principal of ExcelPR Group, and Stefan Pollack, president of The Pollack Group, both based in Los Angeles. The two built the platform to bring fast, AI-powered qualitative research to agencies and in-house teams. The World Cup Fandom Study tests the platform against a live news cycle.
The study was conducted July 12, 2026, during the tournament’s final week. It ran five focus groups, each representing a different audience segment: diehard soccer fans, casual viewers, non-fans, soccer parents, and adults 18 to 29. Each group included eight AI personas. Every segment expressed genuine warmth toward soccer, but none showed signs of turning into lasting fans. Participants also reported sharply lower personal interest after the US team’s July 6 elimination, even as national television ratings for the tournament stayed at record-high levels.
“Our study set out to answer one key question: is this excitement going to last?” said Erik Deutsch, co-founder of SmartFocus.ai. “The TV ratings and human polling tell us Americans showed up for the World Cup. That much we already knew. What’s new is how fast we got a deeper answer. Five AI-powered focus groups gave us real, defensible insight into the reasoning behind that enthusiasm, while the story was still live, not months later.”
As one AI persona in the study’s 18-to-29 group put it, soccer interest in the U.S. is “a spike, not a habit.” That is the trajectory today, but the study’s findings point to specific, actionable steps that could turn it into something more lasting.
KEY FINDINGS
- The belief that America fell for soccer is geographic. Participants near a host city or connected to youth soccer were most likely to believe the country converted because of hosting. Participants outside those circles saw little change. Several described the tournament as something happening on television, not in their daily lives.
- The handoff is broken. Participants who said they’d want more soccer after the final could not name which league, channel, or app would come next. The World Cup drew the crowd, but nobody could say where the next game would be, and several participants said they assumed that following the sport further would mean another subscription or a hard-to-find schedule.
- The interest that outlasts the tournament is rooted in kids and heritage. The only participants watching avidly were connected through family, community, or a soccer club they already loved. A child who plays the sport, a family viewing tradition, or a personal tie to a national team came up repeatedly as the reason interest survived past the tournament.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The study identifies four specific moves US Soccer, MLS, and the networks could make to hold onto the audience the World Cup just brought to the sport, rather than lose it once the final ends.
- Answer “what do I watch next, and where?” the moment the tournament ends. One clear, heavily promoted destination with schedules, free highlights, and plain-language stakes.
- Sell occasions, not fandom. Weekend watch events built around real logistics (low cost, kid-compatible, easy to find) match how Americans actually engaged with the World Cup.
- Invest through the channels that already work: kids and heritage. These are identifiable, reachable audiences, and they are the sport’s realistic growth path.
- Position MLS as an occasional outing, not a weekly commitment. Meeting audiences where they are beats asking them to convert.
ABOUT THE METHODOLOGY
SmartFocus.ai has published a full methodology summary alongside the study’s findings, detailing how the research was designed and fielded, and stating plainly what AI-powered focus groups can and cannot show. As part of that transparency, SmartFocus.ai identified and disclosed a known limitation of the method: all 40 AI personas recalled that the U.S. hosted the 1994 World Cup at a rate no real-world sample would match, a sign of the underlying AI model’s own training rather than authentic public recall. That data was excluded from the study’s published findings. The study was benchmarked against public polling from Ipsos/AP and CBS News/YouGov, and SmartFocus.ai will reconvene the same 40-persona panel in October 2026 to publish whether the findings held.
ABOUT SmartFocus.ai
SmartFocus.ai is an AI-powered virtual focus group platform that delivers fast, professional-grade qualitative insights from simulated audiences and experts on demand. The platform conducts moderated discussions in real time and generates structured insights reports with key takeaways and actionable recommendations. Users can revisit focus groups over time, transforming what has traditionally been a one-time research exercise into an ongoing strategic resource. SmartFocus.ai was founded by communications professionals Erik Deutsch and Stefan Pollack to make professional-grade insight accessible to organizations of all sizes. Plans start at $99 for a single session. The company was developed with support from Microsoft for Startups. SmartFocus.ai is headquartered in Los Angeles. Follow us @GetSmartFocus on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube. Learn more at smartfocus.ai.