Japan became the first national team to qualify through the World Cup qualifiers, with New Zealand and Argentina also clinching

The FIFA World Cup has been expanded to a 48-team competition for 2026. Here's a list of the nations that have made the cut.

As host nations, the United States, Mexico and Canada automatically qualify for the tournament. In the March 2025 window, we started seeing non-host nations qualify for the World Cup. The first to accomplish this feat was Japan on March 20. By the end of the March qualification window, four more had punched their tickets.