[4] At a meeting in Blackpool, England in 1953, the International Board accepted Paul Barrière's proposal that France should be the nation to host[4] the first tournament to be officially known as the "Rugby World Cup".

[6] The 1954 Rugby League World Cup was won by Great Britain who defeated France in Paris on 13 November to claim the title.

Despite a home nation victory the World Cup suffered from poor crowds due to the live broadcast of games for the first time.

The final at the Stade de Gerland in Lyon witnessed what is (as of 2021) the last British team to win the Rugby League World Cup.

There was not a final held to decide the champions of the 1975 tournament and so Australia won by virtue of topping the group standings.

Although the final between Australia and Great Britain was a closely fought affair, public interest in the tournament waned due to the continuing tinkering with the format and it was not held again until the mid-1980s.

This format was repeated from 1989 to 1992 (with games once again also being part of tours) and Australia won again, defeating Great Britain 10–6 at Wembley Stadium in front of 73,361 people.

The tournament expanded to ten teams with Fiji, Samoa, South Africa, and Tonga making their world cup deputes.

Unlike previous tournaments where the top two teams in the table played in the final, a knockout stage was added, with quarter and semi-finals.

[10] In 2000, the World Cup was held in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France, and expanded the field further, with sixteen teams entering.

In the same year, the first Women's Rugby League World Cup was held, with New Zealand defeating Great Britain in the final.

Due to these problems the competition was put on indefinite hiatus and replaced with the Rugby League Tri-Nations.

The tournament, originally scheduled for 2012, was moved very early in its organisation to 2013 due to the United Kingdom hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics.

[12] 2017 Rugby League World Cup taking place in Australia, New Zealand and for the first time in Papua New Guinea.

While Australia would claim the title once again and for an eleventh time, the tournament was considered highly successful in terms of competitiveness.

[21][22] The 2021 tournament was the most watched rugby league world cup in history,[23] and was regarded as a sporting, commercial, and social success by the IRL.

[24] A proposal was put forward in 2016 to hold the 2025 Rugby League World Cup in the United States and Canada,[25][26][27] but in December 2018 plans for the tournament to be held in North America were scrapped due to financial concerns.

[38] On 3 August, the IRL announced that the tournament would be postponed to 2026 and held in the southern hemisphere with only 10 teams taking part.

[39][40][41][42][43] It was later confirmed on 24 July 2024 that Australia would host the tournament with a number of games co-hosted by Papua New Guinea.

The remaining spots are achieved through regional qualification tournaments, split between the four International Rugby League confederation Asia-Pacific, Americas, Europe, and Middle East-Africa.

The Rugby League World Cup has followed a varied range of formats throughout its history as the number of teams participating has increased.

This will be temporary altered for the 2026 tournament due to its late rescheduling, the exact format to be used remains unknown.

England have co-hosted once with Wales in 2013 although the 2000 World Cup was played across the UK as well as some games in Ireland and France.

The smallest stadium ever used was also in 2013 when The Gnoll, Neath, with a capacity of 5,000 hosted a game between Wales and Cook Islands.

Great Britain has won three titles, however since 1995 have competed separately as England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.