Spain outlasted Argentina 1-0 in a tense extra-time final to capture its second FIFA World Cup™, but La Roja weren’t the only champions who emerged over six thrilling weeks of nonstop soccer, sold-out stadiums, and record U.S. audiences.
EDO's World Cup Top Ads leaderboard ranked every creative that aired during the tournament — 1,248 ads from 369 brands across 104 matches, spanning both English- and Spanish-language broadcasts — based on the ad-driven consumer actions that are proven and predictive of future sales.
When the dust settled, we gave each ad an Engagement Volume Index (EVI) based on our measurement: 100 equals the engagement driven by the average World Cup ad, with a score of 1,000 equaling 10x this baseline.
So who took home the trophy? Here are the biggest stories in the data.
An upset at the top of the table
Beer, cars, and sneakers have owned live sports advertising for decades. This summer, a prediction market took the crown.
Kalshi's "Dentist," starring Timothée Chalamet, finished as the tournament's most effective creative overall, driving 796x as much engagement as the average 2026 World Cup ad. Two more challengers from outside the usual suspects followed: Oura Ring's "World's Smallest Ring" (267x) and AT&T Home Internet's "Knock on the Block" (170x). The familiar names still delivered — Adidas and Toyota both finished in the top five — but the newcomers set the pace.
And Kalshi wasn't an outlier. Meta Glasses landed at No. 6, YouTube TV's star-studded "Don't Settle for Meh" at No. 7, and Starlink at No. 11. The top of the leaderboard is full of brands that didn't exist, or weren't buying TV, a decade ago. For digital-native advertisers, the World Cup settled a question: the world’s biggest sporting event doesn't just deliver reach. It delivers measurable outcomes.
Official partners got more than a logo
A FIFA deal came with perks beyond in-stadium branding, with sponsors consistently outperforming in the commercial breaks.
McDonald's turned its World Cup Meal and World Cup Cups campaigns into a heavy presence across the rankings, repeatedly charting in both English and Spanish. Airbnb topped the Travel category with "Did You Know?" and landed at No. 14 on the overall leaderboard. Coca-Cola and Hyundai landed multiple spots apiece across the rankings.
None of this surprises us. Our Sponsored Ad Outcomes™ research has quantified the effect: when a brand runs TV creative alongside a sponsorship, engagement climbs 34% versus a typical integration on its own. A sponsorship works hardest when it's backed by airtime -– the two compound.
The tournament's other breakout star: Spanish-language TV
More fans watched this World Cup on Spanish-language TV than the last two tournaments combined — including plenty who didn't speak the language but wanted the energy of the broadcast.
The creative work rose to meet the moment Toyota's "Endurance is What We Do" — a Spanish-language spot built around the brand's identity rather than a soccer gimmick — landed at No. 5 on the tournament-wide ranking (140x). Standout performers from Ford, Modelo, and McDonald's were created for Spanish-speaking viewers from the start, not adapted after the fact. The brands that treated SLTV as its own creative brief saw the difference in their outcomes.
Chalamet and Beckham moved the needle among celebs
Plenty of celebrities made their mark at this year’s tournament, but Timothée Chalamet and David Beckham stood out from the pack.
Timothée Chalamet owned the summit: alongside Kalshi's chart-topper, he featured in two Adidas spots that also reached the top ten. David Beckham owned the map: he showed up in charting ads for The Home Depot, McDonald's, Verizon, Bank of America, Stella Artois, Lay's, and Pepsi — no other celebrity appeared in more of the top 100.
The scoreboard doesn't lie
The brands at the top of this leaderboard earned their spots through deliberate choices — the right creative, the right placements, the right formats, and often the right sponsorship structure behind it all.
Explore every ranking, category, and trend at edo.com/worldcup, and grab our Sponsored Ad Outcomes™ whitepaper to see what separates live sports investments that perform from ones that just air — at the World Cup and all the events to come.