FIFA President Gianni Infantino has said the FIFA World Cup 2026™ “destroyed every record” after the first 48-team edition in the tournament’s history came to a spectacular end.

Spain dethroned reigning champions Argentina in the final at the New York New Jersey Stadium to be crowned FIFA World Cup™ winners for a second time and bring the curtain down on a milestone-setting 39 days of competition across Canada, Mexico and the United States.

With three co-hosts and a record number of participating teams, the 2026 tournament was groundbreaking even before the first match kicked off in Mexico City on 11 June, but it went on to set benchmark after benchmark through to its conclusion on 19 July.

An all-time record 6,810,966 fans attended the 104 matches – more than the 2018 and 2022 editions combined – with an average crowd of 65,490 at every game. With the 16 venues filled to 99.7% capacity, the 2026 tournament set another FIFA World Cup best.

Fans also saw more entertainment on the pitch. The 48 teams registered 308 goals between them – smashing the previous best of 172 from 2022 – with an average of 2.96 goals per game. That surpassed the average of 2.69 in Qatar four years ago and is the highest ratio since the 1970 tournament in Mexico.

“This World Cup has not just broken all possible records, it has smashed them, it has destroyed every record,” Mr Infantino said. “All the top, top players performed extremely, extremely well, from, of course, Rodri, who was the best player of the tournament, to Leo Messi, to Kylian Mbappé, to Erling Haaland, to Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham: every player was there. New players came in, beautiful stories, debutants, the Cabo Verde stories, so beautiful.

“I mean, you cannot script the perfect (FIFA) World Cup in such a way as this (FIFA) World Cup happened. I think we have to invent a new vocabulary, new words to define the success of this FIFA World Cup.”

The number of people having engaged with the tournament around the world is expected to total more than six billion when the final figures are released, and a number of TV viewing records were set by those unable to attend matches in person. In addition, more than 9 million fans attended FIFA Fan Festivals across the three host countries, including more than 4.5 million in Mexico alone.

Mr Infantino said the breathtaking numbers were symptomatic of how football had united the world.

“I feel good. I feel fantastic. I feel great, satisfied for the incredible success of this FIFA World Cup,” he said. “I am very proud, of course, of everything that has happened. I am very happy because what we did is, we made millions of people in America and around the world happy. We have seen images and scenes of fans in the stadiums, in the cities, in America, in Canada, in Mexico, all over the world, which are unique. And this reminds us that football in the FIFA World Cup is not just a competition, but it is actually there to unite the world and to make, maybe, the world a little bit better.”

With the 2026 edition already disappearing in the rear-view mirror, the road for FIFA’s flagship men’s tournament now directs towards the FIFA World Cup 2030™. It will be co-hosted by Morocco, Portugal and Spain with matches also played in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay as part of the tournament’s unique centenary celebration.

While he acknowledged that certain aspects may be different, the FIFA President said the common thread that runs through every FIFA World Cup would connect the 2030 edition with its 23 predecessors.

“Nothing can touch the power and the magic of the FIFA World Cup, because the world needs events like this to bring them together, to bring people together in joy and happiness. We saw so many families, so many women in the stadiums. We saw so many happy scenes in the cities. We saw fans from different countries celebrating,” Mr Infantino said.

“We had peace, we had joy and we had people coming together, because when you do the things as we do at FIFA, with your heart and with passion, then they turn out perfectly well. This FIFA World Cup has been incredible; the next one will be fantastic.”