Between match attendance and the sheer number of viewers watching at home or at fan events, there's no doubt that this year's World Cup is going to break many records.
However, this latest record-breaking achievement from the 2026 World Cup is truly astonishing.
According to Google, Google Search saw its highest usage ever on Tuesday immediately after Argentina scored the winning goal in its comeback victory against Egypt in the World Cup Round of 16 match. This moment surpassed all prior Google Search usage periods in the company's near-28 year history.
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"Google Search broke all prior usage records and saw its highest usage in history right after Argentina scored their winning goal in yesterday’s match!" said Google SVP of Knowledge & Information Nick Fox alongside the exploding head emoji in a post on X.
Google confirmed to Mashable that the measure is based on the number of search queries per second that occurred on its search engine during the game, immediately following Argentina's third goal.
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Argentina, the defending World Cup champions, were on the brink of elimination as Messi and the rest of the team were losing 2-0 up until the 79th minute of the game. Argentina pulled off a miraculous comeback, scoring three goals within 14 minutes, with the winning goal scored in the third minute of extra time after the 90th minute.
Google tells Mashable that the top search query after Argentina’s winning goal was “argentina vs egypt,” with users ostensibly searching for results of the match.
Google also shared global Google Trends data with Mashable that shows other search queries that contributed to the record-breaking Google Search usage after Argentina's third goal.
In addition to “argentina vs egypt,” these queries include:
argentina x colombia
how many world cup goals does messi have
who else is playing in the world cup today
how many world cups have argentina won
what is it called when a player hits another player in game
is it messi's last world cup
where is the final world cup game being played
how many assists does messi have in world cup 2026
who is the best football player in the world
who will argentina play in the world cup
As you can see, there was clearly lots of interest in Messi specifically, who scored the second goal and was credited with the assist for the first goal. Messi's goal was his eighth overall in this World Cup tournament so far. Also, based on the search data, it appears many users thought Argentina would go on to face Colombia next. However, later that day, Switzerland eliminated Colombia in penalties.
There is still plenty of World Cup left — and plenty more records to potentially break — with four quarterfinal matches, two semifinals, and then the final game left to go.
Argentina will now face Switzerland next on Saturday, July 11.
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