Special event
World Cup 2026 prediction game
Kicks off 11 June 2026 across the US, Canada and Mexico. 48 teams, 12 groups, 104 matches. TopGaffer turns the whole tournament into one long resource-management puzzle — not another guess-the-bracket game.
What makes this different
Every other World Cup prediction game lets you pick anyone for every match. Brazil to beat Iran? Easy. Spain to beat Honduras? Also easy. Six rounds of "pick the favourite" later, half the field is on max points and the tournament is decided by the final.
TopGaffer breaks that. Each team can only be picked 3 times across the entire tournament. Spend Brazil's three uses on group matches and you can't pick them in the knockouts. Save them for later and you might miss their easy group wins. Every pick costs something.
The pick budget
You get 47 picks across the whole tournament — fewer than the 104 matches, so you can't pick every game. Choose where it counts.
| Round | Matches | Your picks |
|---|---|---|
| Group stage (Matchday 1) | 24 | 10 |
| Group stage (Matchday 2) | 24 | 10 |
| Group stage (Matchday 3) | 24 | 10 |
| Round of 32 | 16 | 8 |
| Round of 16 | 8 | 4 |
| Quarter-finals | 4 | 2 |
| Semi-finals | 2 | 2 |
| Final | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 103* | 47 |
* Third-place play-off is excluded from picks.
Group coverage rule
You must make at least 2 picks from every group. That's 24 of your 30 group-stage picks locked to coverage; the remaining 6 are yours to spend anywhere — your wildcards.
Unfilled coverage slots score zero. Late joiners get zeros for matches that have already kicked off — there's no points-cap that softens missing the first few games.
Scoring
- Win: 3 points · Draw: 1 · Loss: 0
- Knockout bonus: +1 if your team draws at 90 minutes and advances on extra time or penalties (total 2 points).
- Tiebreakers: Goal difference → goals for → goals against. All calculated from the matches you picked.
Picks lock at kickoff
Change your pick on any match right up to its kickoff. Once the whistle blows, that pick freezes. Other matches stay editable. There's no "join fee" of pre-committed picks — only what you've made so far counts against your bank.
Free, no ads, no money
TopGaffer is free. No entry fee, no ads, no in-app payments, no gambling. Just bragging rights on a global leaderboard, with private groups for your mates and the office sweepstake crowd.