Additional competitions under the Festival of World Cups banner were also planned to take place but were cancelled due to fundraising and squad selection issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Along with official sponsors and partners, organisers announced numerous projects to focus on the long-term impact of the Rugby League World Cup.

[10] Three further venues (Copper Box Arena, English Institute of Sport, and Manchester Central) will host the Wheelchair tournament.

[19] Despite the initial date for World Cup being over a year and a half away when Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, from very early on organisers developed contingency plans to defer the events to 2022 should it become necessary to postpone in 2021.

[21][22] This was despite reports that the Australian Rugby League Commission had yet to sign the participation agreement and the South Sydney Rabbitohs CEO Blake Solly claiming the preferred option from NRL clubs remained to postpone it to 2022.

[26][27] Australia and New Zealand faced backlash following their announcement to withdraw with RFL chairman Simon Johnson calling the decision "selfish, parochial and cowardly".

[28] Johnson had also pointed out the difference compared to other Australian sporting bodies that were still planning to send athletes to the Tokyo Olympics from July 2021.

[23] However, former Downing Street Press Secretary and British journalist Alastair Campbell noted the differences between the lower cases and tougher restrictions in Japan compared to the higher cases and no restrictions that existed in the UK – instead blaming Simon Johnson's namesake and then-British PM Boris Johnson for wrecking the World Cup.

[19] The opening ceremony for all three tournaments took place at St James' Park in Newcastle on 15 October 2022 before the men's Group A match between England and Samoa.

[32] The opening ceremony suffered major disruption as the PA system at St. James's Park failed resulting in most of it being curtailed.

Kaiser Chiefs only managed to play one song and only the flag bearers of participating nations were called to the field before the failure.

The PA failure also resulted in a ten-minute delay to kick-off as the system was needed in order to play The Banner of Freedom and God Save The King before the match.

[33] For the first time, the men's, women's, and wheelchair tournaments were held concurrently as centrepiece events with all players receiving equal pay.

[43] Samoa started the match well with early pressure but Australia's strong defensive performance laid the foundations and more than lived up to their billing as overwhelming favourites.

[46] After the break, Angus Crichton was sin-binned for an elbow that ruled out Chanel Harris-Tavita for the remainder of the match with a head injury, but even with a man down Australia added a fourth try through Cameron Murray.

[46] The 2021 tournament was the sixth staging of the Women's Rugby League World Cup and featured eight teams, an increase of two from the 2017 event.

[47] Australia had been the most dominant side throughout the tournament, amassing 258 points in their five matches prior to the final – including a 82–0 victory against Papua New Guinea in the semi-final.

[49][50][51] Jessica Sergis opened the scoring within six minutes into the final, before two tries from Isabelle Kelly and another from Julia Robinson gave Australia a 20–0 lead at half-time.

[51] New Zealand could not muster a response in the second-half with Emma Tonegato, Tarryn Aiken, and Sergis all extending the lead for Australia, but a Madison Bartlett try did give the Kiwis a consolation.

[50] Kennedy Cherrington and Evania Pelite concluded the scoring for Australia as they ran out as 54–4 winners, the second-highest margin of victory recorded in a final.

[36] France and England were considered to have "been the best at the tournament by a distance, going through the pool stages unbeaten and then both recording comprehensive semi-final wins" to ultimately face off against each other for a third consecutive world cup final.

[54] With the sides evenly matched, the game was not the free-scoring spectacle that earlier rounds had been and both teams produced strong defensive displays.

[54] England went ahead for the first time three minutes into the second half through a try by Lewis King before Jack Brown extended their lead by eight points.

[56] Additional competitions under the Festival of World Cups banner were planned to be held in Greater Manchester in the summer prior to the three centrepiece men's, women's and wheelchair tournaments.

Australia, England, New Zealand, and Wales competed in a single round-robin tournament with the top two teams facing off in a final at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

[60] The draw was made for the match schedule on 29 July 2022 during an episode of Channel 4's The Last Leg; presenter Adam Hills announced his intention to be part of the Australian squad.

[61] England beat New Zealand 42–10 in the final to become world champions, whilst Wales claimed third place after a technical infringement saw the result of their opening group stage match overturned.

[89] The first major grants were announced in June 2019 and saw monies allocated for the construction of new clubhouses and changing facilities at locations in Salford and Shevington.

[91] In May 2021 it was announced that the National Lottery (United Kingdom) partner with the tournament to strengthen the CreatedBy program and allow RLWC2021 to deliver more projects to the community clubs especially those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.