The 2026 World Cup will be the largest in the tournament’s history, featuring 48 teams, matches across three host nations, and 16 venues hosting a record-breaking 104 games over 39 days.
Hosted jointly by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, this edition marks the first World Cup since FIFA increased participation from 32 to 48 teams. The expanded format introduces four additional groups in the opening stage and adds a new round of 32 to the knockout phase.
The last expansion took place in 1998, after which the next seven tournaments featured 32 teams and 64 matches. The 2026 event will also be only the second World Cup shared by multiple countries, following the 2002 tournament co-hosted by Japan and South Korea.
The United States will stage matches across 11 venues, while Mexico will host games in three cities and Canada in two. Mexico is set to host 13 matches, including the opening game in Mexico City on June 11 between the home side and South Africa, along with three knockout fixtures.
Canada will also host 13 games, beginning with the hosts facing Bosnia-Herzegovina in Toronto on June 12, plus three knockout-round matches.
The remaining 78 matches will be played in the United States, starting with the U.S. taking on Paraguay in the Los Angeles area on June 12. The U.S. will also host every quarterfinal, semifinal, and the final, which will be held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Here are some additional statistics and storylines to follow during the 2026 World Cup:
1,248: There are a record 1,248 players on the rosters coming from 449 domestic clubs in 71 countries. There are 357 players with World Cup experience, alomng with 891 first-timers.
England leads the way with 200 players on rosters who are based there at club level. Germany is second with 109, followed by France (86), Spain (86), Italy (71) and Saudi Arabia (49). Major League Soccer will be represented by a record 44 active players at the World Cup with 103 of the players having some experience in MLS.
Manchester City of the Premier League has the most players of any club with a record of 19, followed by Bayern Munich with 18, Champions League finalists Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal 16 and Barcelona with 15.
226: Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo leads all players in the tournament with 226 caps — the most ever by a single men’s player — as he is set to join Argentina’s Lionel Messi as the only players to appear in six World Cups.
Ronaldo is the only player to score in five World Cups with eight goals in his 22 matches.
Messi has the most career World Cup matches with 26 and needs two appearances to become the third man with at least 200 caps (Bader Al-Mutawa, Kuwait, also has more 200 appearances in international play). Croatia’s Luka Modric is three short of joining that group.
Mexico’s Guillermo Ochoa is on a World Cup roster for the sixth time but didn’t appear in a game in 2006 or 2010.
16: Miroslav Klose’s record of 16 career goals for Germany could jeopardy in this year’s edition. Messi comes into the tournament with 13 career goals, trailing only Klose, Brazilian star Ronaldo (15) and Gerd Muller (14). France’s Kylian Mbappe is also in range having scored 12 goals combined in the past two tournaments
8: Only eight countries have won the World Cup with six of those teams winning multiple titles led by Brazil’s five. The only first-time winners in the last 11 Cups came in 1998 when France won the first of its two titles and in 2010 when Spain won it all.
2: Only two countries have repeated as champions with Pele leading Brazil to titles in 1958 and ‘62, and Italy winning it in 1934 and ’38. Three other defending champions made it to the title game, including France four years ago before losing to Argentina.
6: There have been six defending champions who failed to make it out of the group stage, including in three of the last four editions. France made it back to the final in 2022 but Italy (2010), Spain (2014) and Germany (2018) all get eliminated before the knockout rounds.
3: France will try to become the third county to make it to three straight finals after winning it in 2018 and losing in 2022. West Germany lost the final in 1982 and ’86 before beating Argentina in 1990. Brazil had wins in 1994 and 2002 around a title game loss to France in 1998.
23: Brazil is the only country to appear in all 23 editions of the World Cup starting in 1930 in Uruguay. The Brazilians also lead all countries with 76 wins, 237 goals and a plus-129 goal differential. Germany is next in all three categories with 21 appearances, 232 goals and a plus-102 goal differential, including 10 appearances as West Germany before reunification.
4: There are four countries making their World Cup debuts with Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan and Uzbekistan the newcomers this time around. That will increase the total of countries to compete in the World Cup to 84 all-time.
7: Egypt has played seven World Cup matches without a win. The Egyptians are 0-5-2 and will try to break through starting June 15 against Belgium. The only country with more games and no wins is Honduras with nine. Honduras didn’t qualify this year.
2,720: There have been 2,720 goals scored in 964 matches in the first 22 World Cups. With the additional 40 games, the record of 172 goals in a tournament set in Qatar in 2022 should be broken. The record of 5.38 combined goals per game set in 1954 should be safe.
25: There is more than 25 years separating the oldest player from the youngest. Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon will be 43 years and 162 days old on the first day of the tournament, while Mexico’s Gilbert Mora will be 17 years, 240 days old.
