Ranking every FIFA World Cup from 1930 to 2026 - ESPN

Editor's note: This piece, re-created and republished from the original Dec. 20, 2022 date, has been updated to include the 2026 World Cup.

The 23rd FIFA World Cup has been over for a few days now. From Boston to Miami to Mexico City to Vancouver, it produced a rollicking summer, memorable for early upsets, superstar performances, inevitable controversies and, as always, fan brilliance.

But where does it stand in the World Cup pantheon? It's hard to say in the immediate aftermath, but that's what math is for!

Using a 50-point scale with seven categories, we can definitively say that you just watched the sixth-best World Cup ever. It didn't give us the star power of 1970, it didn't redefine the game like 1974, and it didn't give us the start-to-finish thrill of 1982, but it was pretty damn good.

Because there are so many different ways to react to and grade a tournament, we needed to set some guidelines. The rankings below were created via a 50-point scale. They have changed slightly since our first attempt at these rankings four years ago.

Up to 10 points awarded for:

— Great players
— Upsets

Up to 5 points awarded for:

— Great final
— Controversies
— Location/fans
— Goal quantity/general excitement level

Finally, up to 10 points were available as bonus points based on particularly fun memories and a general X factor.

Was this ranking process strange, subjective and emotions-based? Did we actually reward tournaments for being controversial? Did this process make only so much sense? Yes. Just like the World Cup itself.

Final: Italy 2-1 Czechoslovakia (after extra time)
Top scorer: Oldrich Nejedly, Czechoslovakia (5)
Tournament score: 17/50

With defending champions Uruguay boycotting the tournament (allegedly on the