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Some of the world’s best summer athletes are heading to Scotland for the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

The Commonwealth Games, a quadrennial event dating back to 1930, unite thousands of athletes from more than 70 nations of the British Commonwealth, that is, countries that are currently or formerly part of the British Empire. So while countries such as Canada, Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and Jamaica will participate, there will not be an American contingent at the Games.

How to watch the 2026 Commonwealth Games

This year’s Commonwealth Games will take place from July 23 to August 2 in Glasgow, Scotland, with events broadcast live and as highlights every night on channels including 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, through a virtual private network like ExpressVPN or NordVPN (NordVPN excludes a 30-day money-back guarantee). Their VPN lets you set your location to Canada to stream CBC’s coverage of the 2026 Commonwealth Games online from anywhere in the world.

Or set your location to Australia or the UK to stream 7Plus and Channel 5’s Commonwealth Games broadcast online.

How to watch the 2026 Commonwealth Games from the US

You can also watch the Commonwealth Games in the US via beIN SPORTS, the Qatar-based sports media group now available in the US on streaming services like Fubo and Sling.

Fubo offers beIN SPORTS on its own for just $5.99 a month, or as part of the Fubo Core package, which gives you 200 live TV channels to stream online for $63.99 a month (normally $88.99 a month).

Don’t have Fubo? Try the service with a five-day free trial here and use it to stream the Commonwealth Games in the US for free. Fubo plans include free DVR so you can record events and view them on-demand whenever you want.

Meanwhile, the cheapest way to get beIN SPORTS on Sling is to subscribe to the streamer’s basic Sling Orange plan (starting at $45.99 a month) and then add the Sports Extra package for an additional $11 a month. You will get more than 40 live TV channels in total that you can stream online.

Sling Orange includes 50 hours of free cloud DVR, plus an on-demand library of free TV shows and movies 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, a lack of venues and declining audiences have led to the elimination of sports such as field hockey, diving, rugby sevens and cricket.

Still, there are plenty of big names to keep an eye on in other sports, including athletics, swimming, artistic gymnastics, boxing and cycling. Paris 2024 Olympic swimming champions Kaylee McKeown of Australia and Adam Peaty of England are expected to compete, as is the gold medal-winning Canadian men’s 4×100 meter relay team in athletics.

Also participating in the track event will be Scottish middle-distance runner Josh Kerr, who just broke the 27-year-old world record in the mile, and Jamaican superstar Shericka Jackson, a two-time world champion who has the second-fastest time ever recorded in the women’s 200m events.

Reigning Olympic pommel horse champion Rhys McClenaghan of Northern Ireland will compete in the men’s gymnastics event, where he will face Cypriot Marios Georgiou, former European All-Around champion and three-time Olympian.

This year’s Commonwealth Games begin 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.