An offensive festival! The group stage of the first 48-team World Cup resulted in a goal fest: 215 in 72 matches, an average of 2.99 per match.

This makes it the highest ratio for a World Cup since the 1950s. In Qatar, at the end of 2022, the average at the end of the group stage was 2.44 goals per game (2.69 over the whole competition).

A review of the reasons that explain such an abundance.

The Quest for the Golden Shoe

The top scorer trophy, often relegated to the background, has already sparked a thrilling battle between the world's greatest strikers. Lionel Messi leads the race for the Golden Boot with six goals in three matches, ahead of Kylian Mbappé (now the all-time leading scorer for Les Bleus), Ousmane Dembélé, Vinicius Junior, and Erling Haaland, who each have four.

The long-standing record of 13 goals in a single edition, set in 1958 by Frenchman Just Fontaine, seemed unattainable, but it could fall. Messi, who now has 19 goals in six World Cups, has already surpassed the previous record of 16 goals held by German Miroslav Klose.

A ball favorable to the gunners?

Former England goalkeeper Joe Hart believes the official World Cup ball, the Adidas Trionda, is difficult to control, especially when struck flat. "It comes towards the players a bit faster than it looks at the moment of the shot," he says.

However, it had nothing to do with the dreaded Jabulani of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, "a frightening ball" for goalkeepers.

New, more unbalanced format

With 48 teams for the first time, the new format produced more lopsided matches. Germany cruised to a 7-1 victory over Curaçao. But the smaller teams, or those considered as such, also made their mark, like Cape Verde, who held the reigning European champions, Spain, to a 0-0 draw and qualified for the round of 32. High-scoring matches, however, are not unique to this edition: in 2022, Spain crushed Costa Rica 7-0 while England thrashed Iran 6-2.

Weak defenses, culpable errors

Tunisian Ellyes Skhiri's own goal after just three minutes against the Netherlands, who won 3-1 on June 26, was the twelfth own goal of this 2026 World Cup, equaling the record set in 2018. The first round saw a number of defensive errors. Two of the three Iraqi goalkeepers made costly mistakes, and Uruguayan goalkeeper Fernando Muslera asked to be substituted at halftime against Spain (who won 1-0) after a major blunder.