The FIFA World Cup Has No "Sports Twitter" and That's a Problem

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is here. The second-screen experience that made it electric? Not so much.

"Sports Twitter" — that chaotic, real-time communal experience of watching live events while doomscrolling reactions — is effectively dead. And nothing has replaced it.

The Verge's Andrew Webster flags what many sports fans already feel: today's fragmented social media landscape simply cannot replicate what Twitter once offered during massive global events. The platform was uniquely suited to live moments — instant reactions, memes, hot takes, all firing in a single stream.

Now the conversation is scattered across Threads, Bluesky, X, and whatever else people half-heartedly check. None have captured that lightning-in-a-bottle energy.

For the biggest sporting event on the planet, there's no digital town square. Just a bunch of competing porches.