(Photo credit: Kai Pfaffenbach-Reuters via Imagn Images)

With more than two hours to go until Mexico and South Africa were set to kick off the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Mexico City on Thursday, all major secondary ticket websites tracked by ticketdata.com had stopped selling tickets to the high-demand match.As of 12:50 p.m. ET, there were no seats remaining on Vivid, StubHub, SeatGeek or Gametime. Ticketmaster's website no longer had either Thursday World Cup match listed among its offerings.South Korea and the Czech Republic are playing later in Guadalajara, Mexico.

That leaves only FIFA's own primary and secondary platforms as last-minute options for fans still seeking a ticket to the match, which had a 'get-in' price of $3,738 two hours prior to kickoff, ticketdata.com reported.The lack of availability on third-party sites is more likely because the inventory was pulled rather than sold out in response to a FIFA policy that no ticket may be purchased or transferred with less than an hour until kickoff.Pulling inventory hours before kickoff is intended to help prevent scenarios where buyers purchase those tickets well before that window closes, only for the seller or intermediary not to approve the transfer in time.Despite speculation that many tickets across the 104 matches remain unsold in response to FIFA's unprecedented primary ticket price points, those waiting for a late, pre-tournament crash in prices have not seen it materialize.After falling substantially across late April and early May, the average 'get-in' price for group stage matches has risen 21% in the past 30 days, according to ticketdata.com numbers, and 14% in the past seven.The Mexico-South Africa opener has been a hot ticket. The prices rose at every benchmark in the past 30 days, and in just the past three days, the get-in price went up 41% from $2,651 to $3,738.

--By Ian Nicholas Quillen, Field Level Media