A Brief History of the World Cup in Numbers
June 25, 2026 · Global
The 2026 World Cup will feature 48 teams and more matches than ever before, with records being sought after by the likes of Messi, Ronaldo and Mbappe.
The 2026 World Cup will be the 23rd edition of the competition, 96 years after its inception in 1930. Only 13 teams participated in the first World Cup in Uruguay, while the 2026 tournament will feature 48 countries for the first time. Unsurprisingly, the upcoming World Cup will have more matches than any previous edition — a total of 104 matches in North America this summer, more than in the first five tournaments combined. Overall, there have been 964 men's World Cup matches, meaning the match between Tunisia and Japan in Monterrey, Mexico on June 20 (5am UK time on June 21) will be the 1,000th. Brazil, which is the only country to have appeared in every World Cup, has played more matches than any other team (114), two more than Germany/West Germany. On the other hand, the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), who lost in the first round to Hungary in the 1938 knockout tournament, had only one match in this competition. Of those 964 matches, the highest scoring match was Austria 7-5 Switzerland in the 1954 quarter-finals; nine of the 12 goals were scored in an incredible 23 minutes of the first half. This match contributed to the fact that the 1954 edition had the highest goals per match average of any World Cup, namely 5.38. The lowest average occurred in 1990, with a figure of 2.21 produced at a tournament in Italy, which played a major role in the introduction of the feedback rule. Turning to players, stars such as Argentina's Lionel Messi and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo are on the verge of becoming the first men to play in six World Cups — with the two currently level with four other players who have appeared in a now-record five editions of the tournament. Meanwhile, Croatia's Luka Modric, Germany's Manuel Neuer and Japan's Yuto Nagatomo have been selected for their respective squads for the tournament and will be making their fifth World Cup appearance if they play in the coming weeks. Ronaldo, who is 41, also has a chance to become the first man to score in six World Cups — while Messi failed to score in the 2010 edition. Despite not scoring in South Africa, Messi has scored 13 goals in World Cups overall: three short of Germany's Miroslav Klose's record 16. With eight matches likely to be played in this edition, the 38-year-old Messi has a pretty good chance of breaking one of the most iconic records in sport (Ronaldo has scored eight goals in the World Cup). However, there is an interesting subplot: Kylian Mbappe has scored 12 goals in the tournament and, like Messi, is expected to play this summer. The 27-year-old Frenchman also has the chance to become the first man to score in three World Cup finals, having scored in both 2018 and 2022.