AppsFlyer Data: UK Fans Kept Spending Even as England’s Win Slipped Away

The only market in AppsFlyer’s study of the world’s biggest football tournament to spike with every goal in the knockout stage, then ride a late-game swing in engagement and in-app spend

AppsFlyer, the Modern Marketing Cloud, today shared new data measuring UK app activity across England’s run through the knockout stage of 2026’s biggest global sporting event, a 1-2 semi-final loss to Argentina and a 6-4 win over France in the third-place match.

The data, part of AppsFlyer‘s wider analysis of the world’s premier football championship, found that the UK stands out from every other market for one reason: it’s the only one that jumped when its own team scored in the knockout rounds.

“England fans lived two entirely different matches on their phones within a week. In the semi-final, activity spiked when England scored, the only time we saw a market react to its own team’s goal in the knockout stage, but the mood shifted fast once Argentina hit back, with fans clearly cooling as the game slipped away. In the third-place match, mobile surged and dipped with every goal in a high-scoring game, keeping engagement elevated throughout. Same fans, same phones, two completely different stories,” says Lex Nakad, GM, EMEA West, AppsFlyer.

Key findings from AppsFlyer’s UK data include:

• England is the only market in the study to spike to react to every goal in the knockout stage, regardless of who scored. Gordon’s opener in the semi-final drove app activity up 21% above normal, a reaction AppsFlyer did not observe elsewhere when a team scored during the knockout rounds. In the third-place match, activity surged and dipped with every goal throughout the ten-goal game.

• England is the only market in the study to spike on its own team’s goal in the knockout stage. Gordon’s opener in the semi-final drove app activity up 21% above normal, a reaction AppsFlyer did not observe elsewhere when a team scored during the knockout rounds.

• The lead didn’t last, and neither did the buzz. Fans peaked at half-time, 47% above normal, before Argentina’s equalizer produced a 19% shock spike. When Argentina’s stoppage-time winner arrived, the reaction was just 6%, fans deflating in real time as the game slipped away.

• The third-place match kept activity elevated throughout. The ten-goal win over France produced a 37% spike at the hydration break and a 25% jump across the goals, driven by the sheer amount of action in the match rather than any single moment.

• Spending rose in both matches, and spiked even on goals against England. Purchases were up 31% in the semi-final and 59% in the third-place match. Per-app spend peaked at half-time (19%) in the semi-final, then spiked again on Argentina’s late goals (18% to 20% on the equalizer, 15% on the winner). Streaming led every category, up 183%.

• Food delivery depended entirely on kickoff time. The earlier, 8pm semi-final saw food activity rise 11% before kickoff and peak at 17% at half-time. The later, 10pm third-place match saw the same market’s food activity collapse by 39%.

Methodology

This data is drawn from AppsFlyer’s knockout-stage analysis of the planet’s largest football tournament, spanning seven markets (US, Mexico, Canada, UK, France, Spain, Argentina) and 18 app categories, comparing match-day activity to a matched regular-day baseline at the same local-clock minute. “England” refers to the national team; the underlying app-market data is the United Kingdom, there is no England-only market cut. Purchase counts and timing are image-backed; revenue and order size are outlier-prone and not quoted.