FIFA says football fans from around the world have applied for almost 3.5 million tickets for the 2018 World Cup in Russia during the first part of the opening sales phase which ended on Thursday.
The ruling body FIFA said in a statement that around 70 per cent of the applications came from the host nation.
As most foreign requests came from countries including Germany, Brazil and Argentina but also from the US and China whose teams failed to qualify.
Almost 1.5 million of the requests came in the final 48 hours after several teams including Argentina, Poland, Egypt and Colombia qualified for the tournament.
FIFA said that of 3,496,204 applications almost 150,000 were for the opening match on June 14 and over 300,000 for the July 15 final.
It added that the tickets would be allocated by a random selection draw, with all applicants notified by November 16.
The first sales phase at past World Cups saw 6.1 million applications for Brazil 2014, 1.6 million for South Africa 2010 and over 10 million for Germany 2006.
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