FIFA World Cup: goals scored per game 1930-2022
World Cup goal-fests
The 171 goals scored during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil equals the record for the most goals in a single World Cup along with France 1998. The World Cup in France was also the first tournament which included 64 teams in the main event, a vast increase on the 18 teams that took part in the very first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930.
World Cup goal kings
Germany’s Miroslav Klose holds the record for the most goals ever scored at the World Cup. The striker scored his sixteenth and record-breaking goal in Germany's 7-1 semi-final demolition of Brazil during the 2014 World Cup. His first World Cup goals came 12 years earlier at the World Cup in South Korea and Japan in 2002. He scored a hat-trick during Germany’s 8-0 victory against Saudi Arabia in the group stage and went on to score two more goals during the tournament. The top goal scorer at the 2002 World Cup was Brazil’s Ronaldo, who comes in at second on the all-time leading scorers at the World Cup.