The History of the FIFA World Cup

The first World Cup kicked off in Uruguay in 1930 with 13 teams and a half-built stadium. The 2026 edition will feature 48 nations playing 104 matches across three countries. In between those two points sits nearly a century of the most dramatic, bizarre, and consequential moments in the history of sport. What follows is a visual breakdown of all of it - the champions, the goal scorers, the blowouts, the bans, the crowds, and the records that still seem impossible.

🏆 Every World Cup Winner

Only eight countries have ever won the World Cup. Brazil leads with five titles, but haven't lifted the trophy since 2002. The European-South American duopoly is total - no team from any other continent has ever won.

Complete Tournament History

* 1950 used a final group stage rather than a single final match. The deciding game was Uruguay 2-1 Brazil.

⚽ Goals Per Tournament

The 1954 World Cup in Switzerland produced a staggering 5.38 goals per game - a record that will almost certainly never be broken. For context, the 2022 World Cup averaged 2.69. The 1954 tournament gave us the so-called Miracle of Bern and Hungary's 10-1 demolition of El Salvador in a qualifying group match against South Korea. It was a wildly different era.

🏅 All-Time Top Scorers

Miroslav Klose holds the record with 16 goals across four World Cups. He wasn't the flashiest striker on this list, but he was the most consistent over the longest period. The record that truly boggles the mind, though, is Just Fontaine's 13 goals in a single tournament in 1958. Six matches. Thirteen goals. Nobody has come within shouting distance of that since.

💥 The Biggest Blowouts

Every now and then, the World Cup produces a scoreline that makes you check if it's real. These are the biggest margins of victory in tournament history. Hungary appears three times in the top five, which tells you something about how terrifying they were in the 1950s and early 1980s.

🏟️ Attendance Records

The single-match attendance record has stood since 1950 and it's not even close. Nearly 174,000 people crammed into the Maracana to watch Uruguay stun Brazil in the final - and unofficial estimates put the real number closer to 200,000. In terms of total tournament attendance, the 1994 World Cup in the United States still holds the record, which is remarkable given that the US wasn't exactly considered a football country at the time.

Highest Single-Match Attendances

🌎 World Cup Wins by Continent

Europe and South America have split every World Cup ever played. Africa, Asia, and North America have produced semi-finalists (South Korea 2002, Morocco 2022, USA 1930) but never a champion. With the 2026 World Cup expanding to 48 teams, the door is wider than it's ever been - but the elite eight has shown no signs of letting anyone else in.

🚫 Countries Banned From the World Cup

FIFA doesn't ban countries often, but when it does, the reasons range from apartheid to war to fielding overage teenagers. Here's every nation that's been excluded from at least one World Cup and why.

🌐 When the World Cup Collided with World Events

The World Cup doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's been shaped by wars, political upheaval, and global crises in ways that most sports events never are. Here's a timeline of the biggest collisions between the tournament and the real world.

🤯 Records That Still Seem Impossible

📈 Most Goals by a Team in a Single Tournament

Hungary's 1954 squad scored 27 goals in 5 matches and still didn't win the tournament. They lost to West Germany 3-2 in the final despite having beaten them 8-3 in the group stage. It's known as the Miracle of Bern and it remains one of the most improbable results in World Cup history.

🚀 Looking Ahead: 2026

The 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico will be the largest ever: 48 teams, 104 matches, 16 host cities across three countries. If the 1994 World Cup is any indicator of what American stadiums can do for attendance numbers, the total crowd figure could shatter every record in the book. The tournament runs from June 11 to July 19, 2026.