Volleyball Nations League (VNL), volleyball’s leading annual international competition, has unveiled its 2026 season with the high-stakes, multi-week tournament spanning 12 countries and 17 host cities. China is set to host both the women’s and men’s finals in a landmark summer of elite international volleyball.
The world’s top national teams and athletes, including new teams and returning rivals, are set to go head-to-head for the coveted title, whilst bringing fans from across every continent together from June to August.
The 2026 season will also mark the VNL debuts of Ukraine’s women’s team and Belgium’s men’s team.
The women’s competition begins in early June across Canada, Brazil and China, before moving through Europe and Asia and concluding with the finals in Macao, China in late July.
The men’s competition follows shortly after, travelling through the Americas and Europe before finishing with the finals in Ningbo, China in early August, returning to the same host city as in 2025.
In 2025, the competition demonstrated its growing global reach with record viewing figures and unprecedented engagement across broadcast and digital platforms.
Across the Americas, Europe and Asia, audiences continued to grow year-on-year, with the competition reaching fans in more than 200 territories worldwide. Global attendance has also accelerated significantly, rising by 56% over the three-year period to exceed 883,000 fans in 2025.
Digital engagement mirrored this growth, with VBTV watch time increasing by over 240% to more than 819 million minutes by 2025.
In Brazil, volleyball outperformed major live sports properties such as Formula 1, Wimbledon and the NBA in weekly average cumulative audience, while the VNL men’s finals delivered Polsat Sport’s biggest audience in Poland in 25 years.
Volleyball World’s streaming platform, VBTV consumption also continued to grow, reinforcing VNL’s position as a premium, year-round content platform for fans and broadcasters alike.
“The VNL continues to showcase the very best of our sport, bringing together teams, fans and communities from across the globe in a shared celebration of volleyball. The VNL 2025 finals broke records that have stood for decades and outperformed some of the world’s most established sports properties, reinforcing its place as one of the most-watched international sporting events of the year. Volleyball is capturing the attention and imagination of fans across the globe at an unprecedented scale, and the VNL’s continued expansion is creating powerful new opportunities for partners, broadcasters and host cities worldwide,” said Ugo Valensi, CEO of Volleyball World.
As volleyball continues to grow rapidly worldwide, the VNL is evolving beyond the court into a full-scale global experience, bringing elite volleyball to new cities and communities while expanding its cultural and social impact through community activations and art-led initiatives during competition.
Fans can expect even more of this in 2026. At selected stops, the competition will introduce community-driven activations designed to bring fans, families and local partners together, creating lasting impact in each host city.
A central element is the return of the Volleyball Legacy Art Project, which debuted at the FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championships in the Philippines and will expand in 2026 with new large-scale public artworks celebrating volleyball and leaving a visible legacy in host cities.
