Booing fans and disgruntled pundits. One of the biggest controversies of the 2026 World Cup so far has been the hydration breaks, which – while not entirely new – are for the first time occurring twice during every match in the tournament. Some spectators complain the breaks are not really about hydration but an opportunity for broadcasters to show more ads, break up the natural flow of games, and are unnecessary in air-conditioned stadiums.
Yet whether or not those complaints hold water, hydration itself is an increasingly prominent point of discussion worldwide. "Hydration is a key issue," says Andreas Flouris at the University of Thessaly in Greece. "We definitely see it, from a scientific point of view, gaining more and more attention." Climate change is intensifying heatwaves, and public health campaigns are encouraging people to drink more fluids.
“Hydration tech booms as World Cup breaks spark debate, with 70% of European workers found dehydrated in a 2018 study.”
It is in this context that hydration-focused gadgets have flooded the consumer electronics market in recent years. They range from sweat monitors to toilet bowl urine-analysers. Not drinking sufficient water is a common problem: a 2023 study suggested that one in four UK adults aged 65 or older were dehydrated due to not drinking sufficient fluids. And a 2018 study by Flouris and colleagues assessed hydration levels in 139 workers around Europe, finding that 70% were dehydrated to a level that could negatively affect their thinking and control of their movements.
Purveyors of hydration tech say their products can help. Years ago, gadgets such as the Apple Watch and Fitbit made step-counting popular, says Roozbeh Ghaffari, co-founder and chief executive of US-based Epicore Biosystems. "Sweat has been the next chapter," he asserts. His company is one of several that makes sweat-analysing devices. In Epicore Biosystems' case, that includes single-use sticky patches and sleeve-like wearables which track the flow rate of sweat as it emerges from your skin, the sweat's sodium content, and skin temperature, among other metrics. A new armband and app combo also offer to evaluate your "hydration readiness" based on "real-time sweat data". "With this new generation of our wearables," says Ghaffari, "we could figure out what type of risk profile you have based on your sweat score." Some of Epicore Biosystems' devices vibrate gently when they calculate it is time for you to take a swig of fluid.
The company says its devices are used by athletes but also workers – a reminder that as heatwaves worsen, the market for knowing your sweat score is only likely to grow.