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The 2026 FIFA World Cup is the biggest edition of the tournament ever staged. With 48 teams spread across the US, Canada, and Mexico, the sheer volume of football being played is unprecedented. The Athletic decided the best way to make sense of all 104 matches was to rank them, worst to best, in real time.
It’s a deceptively ambitious project. Ranking matches while a tournament is still being played means the list is a living document, constantly reshuffled as new games deliver drama or, in some cases, aggressively refuse to.
More teams, more matches, more filler
The expansion from 32 teams to 48 is the single biggest structural change to the World Cup since 1998. That jump brought the total match count from 64 in Qatar 2022 to 104 this summer.
That particular match, a 0-1 result that apparently offered viewers very little beyond 90 minutes of their lives they won’t get back, currently sits at number 96 in The Athletic’s rankings.
On the other end of the spectrum, Argentina’s comeback victory against Egypt has earned one of the higher spots.
Why this format matters beyond the pitch
The initiative launched on June 11, 2026, the same day the tournament kicked off. Since then, it has been updated regularly as group stages gave way to knockout rounds, with each new result potentially reshuffling the entire list.
The crypto angle, or lack thereof
Previous World Cups saw significant crypto sponsorship and integration. Crypto.com had a major presence at the 2022 tournament in Qatar. Algorand partnered directly with FIFA. Fan token platforms like Socios rode the wave of tournament hype to push team-specific tokens.
This cycle, the intersection between the World Cup and crypto markets has been notably quieter. The Athletic’s rankings coverage contains zero mention of cryptocurrency partnerships, blockchain-based ticketing, or fan token platforms.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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