Group Stage of 2026 World Cup Produces Most Goals Per Game Since 1958

The 2026 FIFA World Cup group stage, which kicked off on June 11 in Mexico City and concluded on June 28, produced the highest average goals per game of any World Cup group stage since Sweden hosted the tournament in 1958

Using StatsBomb data, the infographic above shows the average number of goals per game in the FIFA World Cup group stage.

It is broken down by goal type and compares the 2018, 2022, and 2026 editions.

The 2026 World Cup group stage averaged 2.99 goals per game across 72 matches, making it the highest since the 1958 World Cup in Sweden (3.6).
Open play goals more than doubled in absolute terms from 2018 to 2026, rising from 0.584 per game to 1.226 per game.
Penalty goals collapsed from 15% of all group stage goals in 2018 to just 4% in 2026.

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The inverse of the open play story is the penalty story, and it is striking.

In 2018 (the first World Cup to use VAR), penalties accounted for 15% of all goals, the highest proportion of any category that year, at 0.38 goals on average per game.

The introduction of video review technology produced a calibration effect.

Fouls and handball incidents previously missed by referees were suddenly being reviewed and awarded.

By 2022, the penalty rate had already fallen to 8% during the group stage
In 2026, it has dropped to 4%

That is a 68.5% reduction in penalty scoring since 2018.

The 2026 figure may represent the floor of what penalty scoring looks like once VAR is fully embedded into tournament behavior.

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