ByJonty Colman
BBC Sport journalist
The 2026 World Cup held across the United States, Canada and Mexico is already a record-breaking tournament.
With 48 teams, it is comfortably the largest World Cup in history, introducing a 50% increase from the 32 teams that have participated since the 1998 World Cup in France.
But there are plenty more records that could be broken this year, including the most minutes played, most individual goals and most team goals.
Here is a look at some of the current World Cup record holders and how their place in the history books could be affected in the coming weeks.
Which nation has won the most World Cups?
Image source, Getty Images
Lionel Messi holds the record for the most World Cup minutes played - and could become the all-time World Cup top scorer this summer
In the 96-year history of the men's Fifa World Cup, just eight nations have won the tournament. Of those eight, six have done it multiple times.
Brazil hold the record for most World Cup wins with five, emerging victorious in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002.
Germany and Italy are the next most successful nations with four trophies each. Three of Germany's wins were as West Germany, prior to the national teams of West and East Germany merging after the 1990 World Cup.
Defending champions Argentina have three World Cups to their name, while France and Uruguay have two tournament wins each.
England and Spain are the only winners that are one-time champions.
Which nations and players have the most World Cup goals?
Former Germany striker Miroslav Klose holds the record for the most goals in World Cup history.
Klose scored 16 times in his 24 World Cup matches, holding the record by a single goal.
Former Brazil forward Ronaldo ranks in second place with 15 goals from 19 games. Gerd Muller, whose international career was spent representing West Germany, is third with 14 World Cup goals from just 13 appearances.
Current Argentine forward Lionel Messi is joint fourth on 13 goals, alongside former France striker Just Fontaine.
Real Madrid and France's Kylian Mbappe is joint sixth. Both he and Brazil's three-time World Cup winner Pele have 12 goals each.
Messi and Mbappe are the only players who have a realistic chance of overtaking Klose this summer. The duo were the leading two scorers at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, with seven and eight goals respectively.
Eighth and ninth on the list are Sandor Kocsis (Hungary) and Jurgen Klinsmann (West Germany/Germany) with 11 goals each.
In terms of goals scored by nations at the tournament, Brazil rank top, sitting five goals clear with 237.
Germany are in second place with 232 World Cup goals, 80 ahead of third-placed Argentina who have netted 152 times in the competition.
France (136), Italy (128), Spain (108) and England (104) are the only other nations with more than 100 goals.
Netherlands (96), Uruguay (89) and Hungary (87) complete the top 10 highest goalscoring nations at the tournament.
Who holds the record for most World Cup minutes played?
He is still chasing the record for most World Cup goals, but Lionel Messi is already the current record holder for most World Cup minutes played.
Across 26 World Cup matches, the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner has played 2,314 minutes. That is 98 minutes more than the next highest, former Italy defender Paolo Maldini, a runner-up in 1994.
German midfield great Lothar Matthaus, a World Cup and Ballon d'Or winner in 1990, is the only other player to have played more than 2,000 career World Cup minutes (2,045).
Uwe Seeler, a West Germany striker between 1954 and 1970, sits fourth on the list with 1,980 minutes played. Argentina's Javier Mascherano (1,950) and Diego Maradona (1,940) rank fifth and sixth respectively.
Former Germany defender Philipp Lahm (1,920) ranks seventh, while Hugo Lloris (France) and Wladislaw Zmuda and Grzegorz Lato (both Poland) make up the remainder of the top 10.
