Apple dramatically expanded the reach of its Apple Sports app, bringing the live scores and statistics service to more than 90 additional countries and regions ahead of this summer’s much-anticipated FIFA World Cup soccer tournament.
“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 makes its biggest expansion yet
Apple Sports offers real-time access to scores, stats, standings and schedules from around the sporting world. Users can follow leagues such as the MLB, MLS, NBA,NFL, Premier League, LaLiga, PGA Tour and LPGA Tour, plus NHL.
It originally launched in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. in early 2024, but its availability has grown significantly since then. The total hit 80 countries and regions in February, and Tuesday it expanded to 170.
Apple Sports is free and available for iPhones running iOS 17.2 or later. Download it from the App Store.
Unfortunately, Apple does not publish a single official master list of every country and region that supports the Apple Sports app. The best option for users is to try and download the app.
It’s all about the 2026 FIFA World Cup
Schusser made it clear that the timing of the expansion is no coincidence. The FIFA World Cup is the most-watched sporting event in the world. FIFA says the 2022 tournament reached about 5 billion people, and the final alone drew roughly 1.5 billion viewers.
And this isn’t the only move Apple has made to get ready for the rush. In April, its Sports app started enabling users to view complete World Cup tournament groupings and follow their favorite national teams. Following a team enables Live Activities on a user’s iPhone Lock Screen or Apple Watch.
Apple has steadily increased its sports ambitions in recent years. MLS soccer is now included with Apple TV, as is Friday Night Baseball.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
