The group stage of the FIFA World Cup 2026 has concluded with a series of milestones that underline the scale of the biggest tournament in football history.

Staged across the United States, Canada and Mexico, the first-ever 48-team World Cup has rewritten several records on and off the field before entering the knockout rounds.

According to FIFA, the tournament drew a record 4.64 million spectators across 72 group-stage matches played in 16 host cities.

Fans also consumed nearly 300,000 hot dogs during the opening phase, highlighting the event's massive fan engagement.

On the pitch, the expanded format produced 215 goals in 72 matches, an average of three goals per game,the highest scoring group stage in FIFA World Cup history.

France, Germany and the Netherlands finished as the tournament's joint highest-scoring teams with 10 goals each.

The Round of 32 also saw African football achieve a historic breakthrough, with nine CAF nations progressing, the highest number ever to reach the knockout stage.

Concacaf equalled its best-ever performance after Canada, Mexico and the United States advanced.

Seven countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cabo Verde, Canada, DR Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt and South Africa, qualified for the World Cup knockout stage for the first time.

Cabo Verde also became the only tournament debutant to remain unbeaten in the group phase.

Several individual records also fell. Lionel Messi became the first footballer to score in seven consecutive FIFA World Cup tournament matches, extended his all-time World Cup goals tally to 19, and became the oldest player to score a World Cup hat-trick at 38 years and 357 days.

Cristiano Ronaldo became Portugal's highest World Cup scorer with 10 goals, while Harry Kane overtook Gary Lineker as England's leading World Cup marksman with 11 goals.

Other notable firsts included Canada's 6-0 win over Qatar, the first time a Concacaf nation scored more than four goals in a World Cup match, Senegal becoming the first African side to score five goals in a game, and Japan's victory over Tunisia marking the 1,000th match in FIFA World Cup history.