Zurich (Switzerland), Aug 18 (IANS): A total of 2.45 million tickets have been sold so far for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, set to be held in Qatar, the world soccer governing body said on Thursday.

As per FIFA, in the last sales period, which ran from July 5 to August 16, a total of 520,532 tickets were sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

The biggest number of allocated tickets were for group stage matches like Cameroon v Brazil, Brazil v Serbia, Portugal v Uruguay, Costa Rica v Germany and Australia v Denmark.

"Fans living in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the USA, Mexico, the UAE, England, Argentina, Brazil, Wales and Australia led the way and the digital queues by securing the biggest number of tickets," FIFA said.

Meanwhile, the launch date for the next sales phase will be announced in late September. Over-the-counter sales will also start in Doha after the launch of the last-minute sales phase.

The 64-game tournament begins a day earlier than originally scheduled with the opening ceremony taking place before the host nation kicks off the tournament on November 20 against Ecuador. Notably, it will be the first World Cup staged in the Middle East and Arab.