The World Cup starts with a simple answer to a question fans keep asking: a soccer game lasts 90 minutes, split into two 45-minute halves, with added time tacked on at the end of each half. If a knockout match is still level after regulation, the clock grows again. There are 30 more minutes, divided into two 15-minute periods, and if the score is still tied after that, penalties decide it.
That question is back because the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup gets underway Thursday, and the rules matter most when games get tight late. In the round of 32, round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, third-place match and final, extra time can change everything; in the group stage, a draw can stand. The difference is why people searching how many minutes in a soccer game often end up learning more about the knockout bracket than the clock itself.
Every match still begins the same way. The referee keeps time through 90 minutes, while added time accounts for stoppages that interrupt play, from injuries to delays. If the game is tied when regulation ends, extra time begins only in knockout rounds. It is split into two 15-minute periods with a short break in between, and added time can also be used there as well.
Argentina showed exactly how that path can end at the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup. It beat France 4-2 in a penalty shootout after a 3-3 draw in extra time, a result that came only after the teams had gone through 120 minutes and still could not be separated. A coin toss decided which side kicked first, and once both teams matched each other through the first five penalty kicks, the shootout moved into sudden death.
That is the part of the World Cup clock that changes the feel of the game. Group-stage matches can finish level, but knockout matches cannot, which is why late goals in the elimination rounds carry a different weight than they do in the first phase. Once the 30 minutes of extra time are gone, the next stop is a best-of-five shootout, not another half, and that is the structure the 2026 tournament will use when the matches turn from schedule to survival.
