News— 4 min read
Before a ball was even kicked, the 2026 World Cup had already rewritten the record books. The expansion from 32 to 48 teams pushed the total number of matches from 64 to 104, making this the largest World Cup in history by teams, games and duration — 39 days from June 11 to July 19. It is also the first tournament ever co-hosted by three sovereign nations, and with 26-player squads across 48 teams, a record 1,248 footballers are registered at a single World Cup.
The individual milestones have come just as fast. On June 16 alone, three of the sport's biggest stars rewrote history in the space of a few hours. Lionel Messi scored his first-ever World Cup hat-trick against Algeria, tying Miroslav Klose's all-time record of 16 World Cup goals. Kylian Mbappe scored twice against Senegal to become France's outright record scorer with 58 international goals, moving to 14 World Cup goals — third all time behind Klose and Ronaldo. Erling Haaland scored twice as Norway beat Iraq, the first defeat for an Asian nation at this tournament.
The records have not stopped since. Cristiano Ronaldo became the first man to ever play at six different World Cups when Portugal drew with DR Congo on June 17 — joining the milestone Messi reached days earlier — though Ronaldo is currently mired in a five-game scoring drought stretching back to 2022.
History has also been made by the tournament's smaller nations. Curacao, with a population of just over 150,000, became the smallest country ever to compete at a World Cup, and Livano Comenencia's goal against Germany made them the smallest nation ever to score in the men's tournament. Cape Verde, the third-smallest nation ever to play at a World Cup, held European champions Spain to a stunning scoreless draw in Atlanta.
Canada delivered the standout moment of the tournament's first week on home soil — but that story deserves its own telling.