The 2026 World Cup ended on Sunday in New Jersey with the final between Spain and defending champion Argentina, closing out the biggest tournament in the competition’s history. By the final whistle, a record 104 games had been played across almost six weeks in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
That is why the question How many World Cups have there been is being searched now: the answer is no longer just about counting editions, but about understanding how much the tournament has changed. The 2026 World Cup was played in a newly expanded 48-team format, and the scale was impossible to miss. There were more matches, more countries involved and a longer path to the final than in previous editions.
The number that mattered most was 104. That total reflected the new format’s extra group-stage and knockout games, turning the World Cup into a six-week event that stretched across three countries. It was a far cry from the smaller, more compressed tournaments of the past, and it came with a simple payoff for FIFA: the most matches the competition has ever staged in one edition.
The expansion also brought the debate that had followed the format from the start. Critics warned that a 48-team World Cup could produce lopsided matches and drain jeopardy from the group stage. Some of that concern lingered, but the tournament also produced surprises that gave the new format its strongest defense. Cape Verde held Spain to a draw in its opening game, reached the round of 32 and pushed on until losing 3-2 in extra time to Argentina in a World Cup classic. Congo went beyond the group stage and pushed England before eventually losing, while Curaçao was still alive going into its final group match. Vozinha, Cape Verde’s goalkeeper, became a breakout star at 40 and drew millions of followers on social media.
Even at the top of the race for individual honors, the tournament felt crowded in a way the old World Cup never could. Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham were all in the mix for the golden boot, with Mbappé leading on 10 goals before Sunday’s final. He had 22 career World Cup goals heading into the match, while Messi had eight goals at this World Cup and 21 overall with one game left. The final four also underlined how far the tournament spread its reach: Argentina, Spain, France and England all made it that far.
By Sunday night, the 2026 edition had answered the broadest question around the new World Cup format. It made the tournament bigger, busier and harder to predict, and it gave smaller teams a chance to shape the story instead of just filling the bracket. The remaining question is not whether the 48-team World Cup can produce drama. It already has. It is how much larger the event can become before the balance between scale and competitiveness starts to break.
