Google has broken its all-time record for queries handled per second during the FIFA World Cup 2026, Nick Fox, head of Google’s Knowledge and Information unit, has confirmed.

The record spike in traffic came on July 7th immediately after Argentina completed a three-goal surge in the closing minutes to defeat Egypt 3–2, driven by a tying goal from Lionel Messi and a winning strike from Enzo Fernández in injury time.

Google said its top searched query after the game was “argentina vs egypt”. Globally, the company also saw people searching for things like “argentina x colombia” and “how many world cup goals does messi have.” Additional queries included “what is it called when a player hits another player in game” and “is it messi’s last world cup.”

The Alphabet-owned search engine has been fighting to maintain its relevance as AI chatbots become more popular, but it still dominates 90 per cent of the search market.

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Tags: AI, argentina, egypt, google, messi