How Much Prize Money Do World Cup Champions Win?

Argentina has won the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and is taking home the top prize of $42 million in earnings, marking a new record for the greatest sum of money FIFA has ever awarded to a team. In second place comes France, who lost in a narrow head-to-head ending in penalties, and is taking home $30 million.

As our chart shows, the tournament’s prize earnings have skyrocketed over the past forty years. Where the top winnings were just $2.2 million for the ‘82 champions in Spain, the sum climbed fairly steadily to $8 million in Japan/South Korea in 2002, before more than doubling to $20 million for the 2006 tournament held in Germany. Pay packets have continued to grow since that date, with 2022 offering up $4 million more than the Russia 2018 World Cup.

The championship does not only offer money to the top two teams, however. According to data collated by Sporting News, FIFA allocated a total of $440 million in prize money for this year’s World Cup. Third place was awarded $27 million, followed by $25 million for fourth place, $17 million for the quarterfinals, $13 million for the round of 16 and finally $9 million for participation in the group stages.