Kylian Mbappe has become the World Cup‘s all-time leading goalscorer, after his brace against England.
The 27-year-old has already broken a couple of records at the 2026 World Cup so far. In France’s 3-1 win over Senegal, Mbappe scored twice to become Les Bleus‘ all-time top scorer overall and at World Cups — beating Just Fontaine’s record. He added another two against Iraq to take his tally for France to 60 goals, with 16 coming at the World Cup to level Miroslav Klose’s record.
That record had already already been been broken (and improved upon) by Lionel Messi earlier in the tournament. But Mbappe has kept going across the World Cup, and is now the all-time top scorer.
He has scored 22 goals in 22 World Cup games — with 10 coming in 2026. The record may be minor consolation after France’s semi-final exit, but it was a moment for Mbappe to celebrate.
So, how did Mbappe break the record?
Kylian Mbappe’s World Cup goals
World Cup 2018
Remarkably, Mbappe has broken the all-time World Cup goals record despite this only being his third tournament. The Frenchman made his World Cup debut in 2018, a tournament France went on to win. He scored four goals in Russia, with the first coming in Mbappe’s second game, against Peru. He then bagged a brace to help France knock Argentina out in the last-16. Mbappe rounded off his first World Cup tournament with the fourth goal in France’s 4-2 win over Croatia in the final.
World Cup 2022
Mbappe started the 2022 World Cup where he left off four years earlier, scoring goals. He netted France’s third in their opening 4-1 win over Australia — the perfect start to their title defence. Mbappe scored his second World Cup brace in the very next match, proving instrumental in France’s 2-1 win over Denmark to secure their spot in the knockout stages.
Mbappe blanked in the final group game, but he came off the bench with France rotating for freshness. On his next start, the then-Paris Saint-Germain striker scored another brace, this time to help France knock Poland out of the last-16. Mbappe blanked twice more before scoring a hat-trick in the World Cup final against Argentina. He became just the second player to score a hat-trick in the World Cup final, after Geoff Hurst in 1966. The Frenchman also became the sixth player to score in two different World Cup finals. Unfortunately, he was the fourth player to score a World Cup hat-trick and not win the game.
World Cup 2026
Mbappe was a man on a mission in France’s opening game of the 2026 World Cup. A tough matchup, France needed Mbappe to turn things up after half-time, getting them up and running en route to a 3-1 win over Senegal. He added two more to help France secure their spot in the knockout stages by beating Iraq 3-0.
Mbappe drew a blank in terms of goals as France ended the group stage with a 4-1 win over Norway, but he did assist twice. He was back among the goals in the last-32, bagging another brace against Sweden. World Cup goal number 19 came in the last-16 against Paraguay, with Mbappe scoring the only goal of the game from the penalty spot.
The Frenchman brought up 20 World Cup goals in France’s quarter-final win over Morocco, a game in which he also missed a penalty. After drawing a blank in the semi-final against Spain, Mbappe levelled Messi’s record in the third-place play-off. It didn’t look like a goal would come after France were blown away by England in the first half. But Mbappe finished off a good move just moments after the break, for his ninth goal of the 2026 World Cup. He wasn’t done there, though, with a second goal in the game to break the record.
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