Apple Sports Goes Global Just in Time for the World Cup Kickoff
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Last month, Apple updated Apple Sports with new CarPlay Widgets and support for the 2026 World Cup, and now it’s giving its free iPhone app the biggest expansion since it was first introduced two years ago.
This week, Apple announced that Apple Sports is coming to more than 90 new countries and regions, bringing the total to over 170 places where sports fans can follow the World Cup along with numerous other teams and leagues across a broad variety of sports from Major League Baseball and American football to PGA and Formula 1 racing.
Apple launched Apple Sports in February 2024 with one simple goal in mind: creating “an app that delivers incredibly fast access to scores and stats,” as Apple’s services chief Eddy Cue said at the time. Cue wasn’t kidding, either — Apple Sports updates scores so quickly that many fans have complained it’s too fast, providing “spoilers” on plays before they actually appear in the game they’re watching “live,” thanks to broadcast delays on streaming and cable networks.
Since its initial release, Apple Sports has become one of the most-updated first-party apps ever released by Apple, with over two dozen releases in as many months taking it from 1.0 to the current version 4.0 that was released this week.
While Apple introduced support for the 2026 World Cup in last month’s 3.9 update, it’s clearly taken some time to polish it up for version 4.0, ensuring tournament groupings and custom scoreboards are working as they should for what promises to be a fast-paced tournament that could be otherwise hard to follow.
Apple Sports is helping fans get ready for the World Cup by allowing them to explore tournament groupings and customize their scoreboards simply by following the entire tournament or their favorite national teams — making it easier to stay on top of key moments when the tournament kicks off in June.
Apple
“The World Cup unites fans across the globe, making it the ideal moment to bring Apple Sports to even more users,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Music, Sports, Apple TV, and Beats. “Apple Sports was designed to be fast and simple, giving fans an easy way to stay on top of scores, stats, and the action that matters most in real time.”
While the release notes for Apple Sports 4.0 gloss over the specifics, Apple is highlighting three key features in Apple Sports 4.0 in today’s announcement:
- A tournament bracket view offers a clean and scrollable view of matchups and results for each round so fans can easily follow their favorite team’s progression from the group stage through to the final match.
- Visual formations on enhanced game cards that show each team’s starting lineup, allowing fans to get “deeper tactical insight ahead of each match.”
- One tap to Apple News lets fans connect directly to editorial coverage and the latest headlines in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia.
The 2026 World Cup additions will also take advantage of features introduced in previous Apple Sports updates, such as Live Activities and Widgets to stay up to date on your favorite teams on the iPhone Lock Screen, Apple Watch, or even your CarPlay dashboard, plus single-tap access to jump into the Apple TV app to watch live matches on connected streaming services.
Although Apple Sports remains an iPhone-only app, Apple notes that widgets can be added to the iPad and MacBook Home Screen. While the latter is achievable using the iPhone widget interaction in macOS, Apple offers a footnote for the iPad directing users to “download the compatible Apple Sports app.” While this likely just refers to using the iPhone app on Apple’s tablet, it could also be a teaser for an iPad version of Apple Sports coming soon.
