Probably the closest the competition has to a 'group of death' is Group I, comprising France, Erling Haaland's Norway, Senegal, plus one of the FIFA playoff winners.
Elsewhere, European champions Spain landed Uruguay in Group H, while heavyweights Brazil were paired with Morocco in C. Another one of the title contenders, England, will face Croatia, Ghana and Panama in Group L.
Holders Argentina were handed the rather kind Group J of Algeria, Austria, and Jordan. Fellow Pot 1 nations Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands also came away with comfortable draws on paper.
The host nations of Mexico, Canada and the USA will all fancy their chances of progression, having largely avoided the most feared sides.
Below you can see how the World Cup groups were drawn.
In what follows, 'P/O' stands for playoff in reference to the European and FIFA Playoff Tournaments, which will take place in March to determine the final six of the 48 participants. The potential playoff winners are listed in brackets.
2026 FIFA World Cup groups
Group A: Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Czechia
Group B: Canada, Bosnia, Qatar, Switzerland
Group C: Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, Scotland
Group D: USA, Paraguay, Australia, Turkey
Group E: Germany, Curacao, Ivory Coast, Ecuador
Group F: Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Tunisia
Group G: Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand
Group H: Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay
Group I: France, Senegal, Iraq, Norway
Group J: Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Jordan
Group K: Portugal, DR Congo, Uzbekistan, Colombia
Group L: England, Croatia, Ghana, Panama
Mexico to host South Africa in opening match
The tournament will kick off at Mexico's Azteca Stadium with a match between the host nation and South Africa, at 20:00 BST on June 11th, 16 years to the day since they contested the opening match of the 2010 World Cup.
In arguably the standout clashes of the opening round of fixtures, Brazil will face Morocco at 23:00 BST on June 13th, while England will take on Croatia at 21:00 BST on June 17th.
In the group stage, kick-off times will range from 17:00 BST to 05:00 BST the following mornings, with no matches being played during the European daytime.
Check out the full schedule here.
From Bocelli to Trump and everything in between
Flashscore’s reporters arrived at snowy conditions outside Washington’s Kennedy Centre ahead of the draw, but were soon warmed by the incredible tenor tones of Andrea Bocelli, who opened the ceremony with a spine-tingling rendition of 'Nessun Dorma'.
The festivities didn’t stop with that, however, as musical performances and celebrity cameos came in boatloads during the near hour-long build-up to the draw proper.
Robbie Williams and Nicole Scherzinger sang the new World Cup anthem, 'Desire', Heidi Klum and Kevin Hart kept it chugging along between acts, and Matthew McConaughey even popped up on screen.
All of that was somehow dwarfed by Gianni Infantino’s presentation of the new-fangled ‘FIFA Peace Prize’ to US President Donald Trump, an uncomfortably indulgent but entirely expected affair.
Rio Ferdinand and Samantha Johnson led the actual draw, with the help of North American sporting legends Tom Brady, Wayne Gretzky, Aaron Judge and Shaquille O’Neal, in what was a slightly clunky but fairly swift procedure.
Here's all the information about how the World Cup Draw worked.