Record Database
The all-time ledger of World Cup milestones — goals, appearances, fastest strikes and the records still standing from Brazil and Germany.
Open records
FIFA World Cup 2026 · 48 Teams
The numbers behind the world's biggest tournament.
Mundial Metrics is an independent UK statistics desk. We turn expected goals, historical records and live match data into clear, honest football journalism — built for readers who want the figures, not the noise.
2026
Host year104m
Matches scheduled16
Host cities3×
Host nations
What we publish
Four desks, one obsession with the data.
From all-time goalscoring ledgers to live expected-goals models, every page is sourced, dated and built to be read on any screen.
Interactive Tables
Sortable, filterable standings and qualifying form lines covering contenders such as France, Spain and Argentina heading into 2026.
View tablesxG Lab
How expected goals reframe a result. We break down chance quality, finishing variance and the gap between scorelines and performance.
Enter the labThe Long Read
A flagship infographic essay on a century of World Cup numbers — from the first final to a 48-team future across North America.
Read the essay
Tournament watch
Why 2026 will be the most data-rich World Cup ever played.
The expansion to 48 teams adds a new group stage, a fresh round of 32 and a sprawling map of fixtures across the United States, Canada and Mexico. For a statistics desk, that means more sample, more travel variables and more chances to test whether the favourites really are the favourites.
Sides like France and Argentina arrive with deep tournament pedigree, while Spain and Portugal bring high-possession models that reward chance-quality analysis. Outsiders matter too: Croatia have turned tournament knockout football into an art, and emerging confederation qualifiers such as Australia and Saudi Arabia will stretch the data into new territory.
Across every page on this site we keep the same promise — context before conclusions. A 3-0 win that should have been a draw on the underlying numbers is a story we want to tell, not hide.
Read the full essay
Featured number
2.5
Average goals per match across the last five World Cup finals tournaments.
Sample reading
Expected goals, at a glance.
A simplified xG comparison of four pre-tournament contenders, based on chance quality created in recent qualifying windows.
France
2.31
Spain
2.12
England
1.96
Netherlands
1.78
Croatia
1.55
Independent · Ad-light · UK-based
Numbers you can read. Football you can trust.
Explore the desks, dig into the tables, and follow the road to the 2026 World Cup one data point at a time.