By 5 pm more than 22,000 applications had flowed into Football Federation Australia via email, fax and mail for the 8,500 tickets available for the Socceroos' three group games.

Some 10,000 requests were received within the first 30 minutes after tickets went on sale at 9:00 am.

The Australian side, ranked 48th in the world, will play champions Brazil as well as Croatia and Japan in their group games in June.

"It's quite an overwhelming response and a spectacular demand for World Cup tickets," federation chief executive John ONeill said in a statement.

"We said last Friday that demand would exceed supply and it's certainly done that."

Those successful in obtaining tickets will be informed on Friday, he added.

The federation said it was continuing to work with FIFA and the FIFA World Cup Local Organising Committee in Germany to attempt to secure extra tickets for the Australian public.

Football Federation Australia is offering tickets for individual matches as well as travel packages which include accommodation and cost as much as 6,880 dollars (5,100 US).