The FIFA World Cup returns in 2026 as the biggest
edition in the tournament’s history. It kicks off on
June 11 in Mexico City, with 48 teams playing
104 matches across the United States, Canada and Mexico. By
comparison, the inaugural World Cup in Uruguay in 1930 featured just
13 teams and 18 matches.
The expansion means 2026 is almost certain to produce the highest total number of goals in
World Cup history. Yet that growth obscures a subtler trend running through every edition
since 1930: scoring has become progressively harder, with the average goals per match
steadily declining across the decades.
The early decades were an age of attacking football.
Switzerland 1954 remains the ultimate outlier, producing
140 goals in only 26 matches — a remarkable average of
5.38 goals per game. No World Cup before or since has come
close. Through the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, teams attacked freely, defensive structures
were less sophisticated and high-scoring games were common.
From the 1960s onward, however, the game began to tighten. Defences became more organised,
fitness improved and tactics tightened, the floods became trickles.
Italy 1990 averaged just 2.21 goals per match,
still the lowest in World Cup history, while recent editions have largely hovered below
three goals a game. Qatar 2022, despite producing
172 goals overall, averaged only
2.69 per match.
