World Cup

Soccer’s introduction at the 1900 Olympics in Paris led to the 1904 founding of FIFA. At the 1920 Olympics, future FIFA president Jules Rimet, who became known as the “Father of the World Cup,” proposed a separate international tournament for the sport. Before Rimet’s vision came to life, soccer (or football if you’re from most places outside the U.S. including South America, Africa and Great Britain) was primarily an Olympic sport.

In 1930, the first FIFA World Cup saw 13 teams compete for glory in Uruguay. The host country defeated Argentina 4-2 in the first World Cup final, held on July 30, 1930.

Because of the inaugural tournament, soccer wasn’t included at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. However, the sport returned to Olympic competition in 1936 and has been a fixture ever since. Player eligibility restrictions from FIFA and the International Olympic Committee meant that professional players were banned from competing in the Games until 1984.

Meanwhile, FIFA has been holding the World Cup every four years since 1930 with only a couple exceptions.

After the 1938 France World Cup, the Nazi Party was rising to power in Germany. Adolf Hitler petitioned FIFA for Germany to host the 1942 tournament, but the governing body canceled the event before a host was named after the outbreak of World War II. The global conflict also forced the cancellation of the 1946 World Cup.

By the war’s end, no country had offered to host the 1950 tournament. Eventually, Brazil stepped up and constructed its now-famous Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro for the competition. The stadium, built to hold 200,000 spectators, was the biggest in the world at the time. However, construction was still happening during the tournament.

Brazil is among the five countries that have hosted the World Cup twice. The others include Italy, France, Germany and Mexico. The United States is set to join that list following the 2026 tournament. The first time the U.S. hosted was in 1994. According to U.S. Soccer, it was the highest attended event in FIFA history.

Across the 22 World Cups (not including the 2026 tournament), Europe has hosted 11 contests. The first time the World Cup was held in Asia was the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan. Eight years later, in 2010, the tournament headed to Africa for the first time when South Africa hosted the 19th FIFA World Cup.

The international showcase typically happens in the summer months of May, June or July. However, for the first and only time in men’s World Cup history, the 2022 tournament took place in November and December when Qatar served as the host country. The Middle Eastern nation contends with extreme heat in the summer months; temperatures can reach up to 122 degrees. The scheduling change allowed for the World Cup to proceed in safer conditions.

The 2026 World Cup will mark the first time three countries—the U.S., Canada and Mexico—co-host the tournament. Mexico will also be the first country to host three times (1970, 1986 and 2026).

Hosting the World Cup can be massively beneficial for local economies, as the tournament is one of the most popular sporting events in the world—with millions of people traveling to attend games in-person and billions tuning in to watch. In 2022, 1.5 billion people worldwide watched the televised final between Argentina and France, and over 5 billion tuned in over the course of the tournament. (For context, the 2022 Super Bowl had about 100 million viewers, according to Nielsen. And the 2022 Beijing Winter Games reached just over 2 billion people across the course of those Olympics.) FIFA is estimating that 5 million fans will attend the 2026 World Cup in person, and 6 billion people worldwide will watch from afar, which would make it the most-watched sporting event in history, according to Sports Illustrated.

The 2026 World Cup will be the first time 48 teams compete. This means there will be a total of 104 matches. The winning team must win eight games—one more than in 2022 when 32 teams competed.

The number of teams in the World Cup has steadily grown since 1930 when 13 nations entered. At the three tournaments held from 1934 through 1950, between 13 and 16 teams competed. By the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, the standard field was 16 teams; this continued until 1982. That year, the Spain World Cup invited 24 teams to compete, setting a new size for the next three tournaments. The competition expanded once more, to 32 teams, beginning with the 1998 France World Cup.

Although women’s soccer has been popular since the late 1800s, it was largely unorganized until the 1960s. Many countries, including Germany and Brazil whose men’s teams have been soccer powerhouses, banned women from playing the sport. Still, independent Women’s World Cups took place in 1970 in Italy and 1971 in Mexico City. In 1986, a female federation member from Norway named Ellen Wille addressed a nearly all-male FIFA Congress to make a push for a Women’s World Cup.

The inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup was held in China in November 1991; 12 teams competed, and the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) emerged as the first winner. As with the men’s tournament, the Women’s World Cup is held every four years. The field size has grown from 12 to 32 nations at the 2023 competition. The 2031 Women’s World Cup will see 48 nations compete.

Unlike the men’s tournament, the Women’s World Cup is not always played in summer. Although the tournament typically happens in June and July, it has also been held in the fall months of September and October (2003 and 2007) and late July to late August (2023) to account for weather and league season timing.

The United States hosted the Women’s World Cup in 1999 and 2003. Originally, the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup was slated to be held in China, but competition moved to the U.S. last minute due to a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak.

The United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) has never won a World Cup, nor has it advanced to the finals. In 1930—at the first World Cup—the men’s national team did reach the semifinals and placed third, the best performance for the USMNT in tournament history.

However, the USWNT has won four FIFA Women’s World Cup titles, making the American women the winningest team in tournament history. The USWNT won the first FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991. Another memorable victory came at the 1999 Women’s World Cup, when the U.S. beat China 5-4 on penalty kicks in Pasadena, California. This game, which over 90,000 fans attended in person, still holds the record for largest attendance to watch an international women’s soccer match, according to U.S. Soccer. The U.S. women also won the 2015 and 2019 tournaments.

There are a number of World Cup traditions, including the trophy presentation, tournament theme songs and mascots.

The original World Cup trophy, awarded from 1930 to 1970, was the Jules Rimet Trophy. President of FIFA from 1921 to 1954, Rimet mandated that the first team who won the tournament three times would keep the trophy for good, so it stayed with Brazil following its 1970 win. Interestingly, that trophy was stolen in Brazil in 1983 (or perhaps sometime before that) and has never been found. At one point, FIFA paid $311,000 for what was suspected to be the trophy in an auction, but it turned out to be a replica. In 2015, the stone base of the trophy was found in basement storage at FIFA headquarters in Zurich. The rest is still missing.

After Brazil was permanently awarded the Jules Rimet Trophy, FIFA needed a new award to give out. The governing body held a design competition for the new trophy and selected the winning design from 53 submissions. Created by Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga, the FIFA World Cup Trophy features a stylized sculpture of two players holding up the world. The trophy is made of 18 carat solid gold, and the base features two green malachite bands.

Winning teams did get to keep this trophy initially, but since the 2006 World Cup, winners receive the original cup during the prize ceremony, then FIFA awards a replica that the team can display in its federation’s trophy cabinet.

Beginning in 1962, each World Cup has been accompanied by an official theme song, helping generate more interest for the games and hype up the crowds. Chile was the first country to have an official song, “El Rock del Mundial,” composed by Los Ramblers. Over the years, notable artists have recorded original songs for FIFA that had mainstream success. For the 1998 France tournament, Ricky Martin recorded “Cup of Life (La Copa de la Vida).” In 2010, Shakira recorded “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” for the tournament held in South Africa.

Past tournaments have featured just one unifying song, but in 2026, alongside a general theme song, each of the 16 host cities will also get their own. The 16 unique themes, called “SonicIDs,” were created by local DJs and artists. The first single, “Lighter,” from the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Album was created in collaboration with artists from each host nation: Jelly Roll (United States), Carín León (Mexico) and Cirkut (Canada).

The 1966 England World Cup saw the addition of a mascot alongside a theme song. The inaugural mascot, World Cup Willie, was a lion wearing a Union Jack jersey that read “World Cup.” Appearing in every tournament since, mascots ranging from cartoon animals to stylized fruit to abstract shapes reflect the culture and heritage of the host country. The 2026 tournament will have three mascots: Clutch the Bald Eagle (United States), Maple the Moose (Canada) and Zayu the Jaguar (Mexico).

Brazil, the country that has won the most World Cups, also has participated in the highest number of tournaments (all 22). Of the six finals in which the country has played, Brazil has taken home five titles. Here are the countries with the most World Cup wins (including ties for second and fourth place):