The FIFA World Cup is the sport's biggest stage, and its scoring records span more than ninety years. The tournament format has changed repeatedly, with different numbers of teams and matches, so a player's goal total depends partly on how many games they could play.
Our men's and women's World Cup scorer rankings use FIFA's official records, and the articles explain how the formats differ between editions.
Miroslav Klose's 16 goals across four tournaments stand as the all-time men's World Cup scoring record.
Brazil's Marta scored across five consecutive World Cups to build an all-time scoring record that still stands.
A practical walkthrough of the columns, notes and caveats on every ranking page, so you can judge a figure rather than just copy it.
Altitude, rule changes, doping-era marks and plain statistical outliers: the reasons a handful of records have gone untouched for a generation or more.