How Many Games Are In The 2026 World Cup - Full Match Count Explained

How Many Games Are In The 2026 World Cup

Next week sees the eyes of the world get set on North America for the 2026 edition of the FIFA World Cup.

The tournament will take place from June 11th to July 19th, and is unique compared to previous tournaments for multple reasons. Being the first World Cup to be hosted by three different nations, with the USA, Canada and Mexico all joining together to host the event.

However, perhaps the most significant new detail from this summer's tournament is the expansion of the teams involved as for the first time ever, 48 teams will take part.

More teams means more matches, but just how many will there be?

The Group Stages

The expansion of the World Cup from 32 teams to 48 means that more groups will be required to fit the playing sides. With 12 total groups of four teams making it the largest, and longest group stage ever seen in the history of the World Cup.

What won't change however is how many games will take place within each group. With each team playing three times, facing off once each against each of their group opponents. Six matches will take place across the 12 groups, making the total group stage matches add up to 72.

The first match of the group stages will take place on Thursday 11th June, as co-hosts Mexico take on South Africa in Mexico City. With the final matches not taking place until 3am BST on 28th June, where the two group J games will close out the group stages of the tournament, with Algeria taking on Austria and Jordan facing off against current world champions Argentina.

The increase in games will see a record number of matches take place on one day, with multiple days throughout the group stage phase seeing five games take place across 24 hours.

The games that see six group games take place will have games operate at a schedule of 0:00am, 3:00am, 17:00p,, 20:00pm and 23:00pm, all UK BST.

The Knockout Stages

After 72 group games, 16 teams will find themselves eliminated from the tournament after just three matches played, with the remaining 32 teams advancing to the newly expanded knockout stage.

In previous events, the knockouts began with 16 teams taking part, each playing their next match with the prize being a place in the last eight and the quarter-finals. However, the expanded amount of teams will see double the amount of teams advance through to the knockout stage, meaning an extra round of knockout matches will be required.

The conclusion of the group stages will be followed by a 'round of 32' stage, which will see the teams halved to round of 16 following that round of matches.

The round of 16 ties will be followed of course by the quarter-finals, where a final four teams will be established. Each then taking part in two semi-finals to. decide which teams will take part in the final.

Once the two finalists are finalised, a third-place playoff between the two teams that fell the short in the semi-finals will take part in a third-place playoff matchup, in order to establish who will take the bronze medal position in the tournament.

And then it all comes down to the final game, which will take place at the strikingly modern MetLife Stadium, New York. WIth the final bringing the curtain down on the largest and most widespread World Cup in history.

How Many Total Games Will There Be?

Since the first edition of the tournament in 1930, the World Cup has continuously expanded throughout history.

That first event in Uruguay all those years ago saw just 13 teams take part, before 16 teams took part in Italy four years later. And it was not until the 1998 tournament which was hosted, and eventually won by France, that 32 teams took part.

During those tournaments that included 32 teams, a total of 64 matches were played from the very first game of the group stages to the final. However, the expansion to 48 teams will mean that for the first time ever, there will be over 100 games in total at the World Cup, with a total of 104 matches to take place across the event.

That total number of games acts out at a 62.5% increase in total amount of fixtures compared to the previous 32-team format. In fact, there will be more group stage matches at this summer's World Cup (72) than there were in total matches during each of the last the six World Cups.

Whether the increase of matches is a good or bad can and will be debated. But what is for sure is there will be no shortage of football over the next two months as 48 teams take to pitches across North America dreaming of the ultimate glory.