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Some of the best summer athletes in the world are heading to Scotland for the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
A quadrennial event dating back to 1930, the Commonwealth Games unites thousands of athletes from more than 70 nations across the British Commonwealth — I.e. countries that are currently or were formerly part of the British Empire. So while countries like Canada, Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and Jamaica will all be participating, there will not be a U.S. contingent at the Games.
How to Watch the 2026 Commonwealth Games
This year’s Commonwealth Games run from July 23 to August 2 in Glasgow, Scotland, with events airing live and as nightly highlights on channels like 7Plus in Australia and Channel 5 in the UK.
North American viewers can watch the Games for free on CBC, Canada’s national public broadcaster, via a virtual private network like ExpressVPN or NordVPN (NordVPN excludes a 30-day money back guarantee). Your VPN lets you set your location to Canada to stream the CBC’s coverage of the 2026 Commonwealth Games online from anywhere in the world.
Or set your location to Australia or the United Kingdom to stream the 7Plus and Channel 5 Commonwealth Games feed online.
How to Watch the 2026 Commonwealth Games From the U.S.
You can also watch the Commonwealth Games in the U.S. through beIN SPORTS, the Qatar-based sports media group that is now available in America on streaming services like Fubo and Sling.
Fubo offers beIN SPORTS on its own for just $5.99/month, or as part of the Fubo Core package, which gets you 200 live TV channels to stream online for $63.99/month (regularly $88.99 monthly).
Don’t have Fubo? Test drive the service with a five-day free trial here and use it to stream the Commonwealth Games in the U.S. for free. Fubo’s plans include free DVR so you can record the events to watch back on-demand whenever you want.
The cheapest way to get beIN SPORTS on Sling, meantime, is to sign up for the streamer’s Sling Orange base plan (from $45.99/month) and then add the Sports Extra package for an additional $11 a month. You’ll get more than 40 live TV channels in total that you can stream online.
Sling Orange includes 50 hours of free cloud DVR in addition to an on-demand library of free TV shows and movies that you can stream online.
Commonwealth Games 2026 Sports
Unlike previous Commonwealth Games, which have featured more than 30 different summer sports, this year’s event will include just 10 sports, the lowest number of events offered at the Games since 1994. Organizers say rising costs, lack of venues and viewership decline have led to the removal of sports like field hockey, diving, rugby sevens and cricket.
Still, there’s plenty of big names to watch for in the remaining sports, which include athletics, swimming, artistic gymnastics, boxing and cycling. Paris 2024 Olympic swimming champions Kaylee McKeown from Australia and Adam Peaty from England, are expected to compete, as is Canada’s gold-medal winning 4×100 meter men’s relay team in track and field.
The track event will also see Scottish middle-distance runner Josh Kerr, who just broke the 27-year world record in the mile, and Jamaican superstar Shericka Jackson, a two-time World Champion who holds the second-fastest time ever recorded in the women’s 200m events.
Reigning Olympic pommel horse champion Rhys McClenaghan from Northern Ireland will compete in the men’s gymnastics event, where he’ll face off against Cyprus’ Marios Georgiou, who is a former European All-Around champion and a three-time Olympian.
This year’s Commonwealth Games kicks off with an Opening Ceremony featuring British singer-songwriter Tom Walker (of “Leave the Light On” fame), along with Scottish singer-songwriter, KT Tunstall and other local artists. The last edition of the Commonwealth Games was held in 2022 in Birmingham, where rockers Duran Duran performed at the Opening Ceremony.
English (US) ·