Winners

The history of the World Championship clearly demonstrates how volleyball was originally dominated by European nations.

The first two editions were won by the Soviet Union. In 1956, twice runner-up Czechoslovakia took the gold. There followed two more consecutive wins for the Soviet Union, in both cases over Czechoslovakia. The Czechs won a gold medal in the 1966 edition.

In 1970, East Germany prevailed over Bulgaria for their first and only title. In 1974, the Soviet Union threatened to take the lead once more, but ended up being defeated by Poland at the final. Nevertheless, they would confirm their leadership by winning, for the third time, two editions in a row.

1986 saw the first relevant confrontation between United States, the rising major force of the decade, and the traditional leader Soviet Union after the Olympic boycotts of 1980 and 1984. As would be the case two years later at the Seoul Olympic Games, the issue was settled in favour of the Americans led by Karch Kiraly and Steve Timmons. Italy completely dominated the competition in the 1990s, winning all the editions that took place in this decade (1990, 1994, 1998), led by such players as Lorenzo Bernardi and Andrea Giani.

In the 2000s, Brazil became the leading force in the sport, also winning three consecutive editions (2002, 2006 and 2010), the first of which in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the same stage where the Brazilians had been runners-up in 1982. In 2014, hosts Poland defeated Brazil in four sets at the final, achieving their second gold medal and preventing what would have been a historic fourth title in a row. In 2018, Poland won a second consecutive title, again defeating Brazil in the final. In 2022, Poland, playing at home, missed the opportunity to win three consecutive editions by losing in the final to Italy, who won their fourth World title.

As of 2022, 20 editions of the men's Volleyball World Championship have been played: 16 went to European teams, and four to American teams (three times to Brazil and once to the United States).

Qualification

Final tournament

The competition formula of the FIVB World Championship has been constantly changed to fit the different number of teams that participate in each edition. The following rules usually apply:

• Twenty-four teams participate in each event.
• Qualification procedures for the World Championship are long and strenuous, lasting over two years.
• Host nations are always pre-qualified.
• The number of spots available per confederation is determined by the FIVB: Europe has usually the highest, and Africa or South America the lowest.
• To participate in the event, a team must survive a number of qualification tournaments depending on its position in the FIVB World Rankings. Low-ranked teams may have to engage in up to three tournaments to be granted a berth; high-ranked teams typically play only one.
• The competition is divided in at least two phases: a preliminary round and a final round. Depending on the number of participating teams, one or more intermediary rounds may also be required.
• In the preliminary round, teams are organized in pools. Each team plays one match against all other teams in its pool.
• When all the matches of the preliminary round have been played, the top n teams in each pool qualify for the following round(s), and the remaining ones leave the competition. The value of n depends on the number of participating teams and the format that will be employed in the finals.
• The FIVB has tried various different formats for the final round(s). For some years now (2004), there seems to be a consensus that at least semifinals and finals must be played according to the Olympic format.
• Quarterfinals may consist of groups of teams playing against each other, or of direct confrontation; in the latter case additional intermediary rounds might be required to reduce the number of surviving teams to eight.
• The tournament now implements a line-up of fourteen players, and four reserve players in case of injuries.

New formula

A totally brand new competition formula was announced by FIVB. A total of 32 teams will compete in the World Championship. The teams will be divided into 8 groups of 4 teams for the round-robin phase with 2 best teams per group moving into the direct knockout phase: round of 16, quarterfinals, semi-finals and final.^[3]

Multiple gold medalists

Rank	Player	Country	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Marco Bracci	Italy	1990	1998	3	–	–	3
	Dante Amaral	Brazil	2002	2010	3	–	–	3
	Ferdinando De Giorgi	Italy	1990	1998	3	–	–	3
	Andrea Gardini	Italy	1990	1998	3	–	–	3
	Andrea Giani	Italy	1990	1998	3	–	–	3
	Gilberto "Giba" Godoy Filho	Brazil	2002	2010	3	–	–	3
	Rodrigo Santana	Brazil	2002	2010	3	–	–	3
8	Josef Musil	Czechoslovakia	1952	1966	2	3	–	5
9	Bohumil Golián	Czechoslovakia	1956	1966	2	2	–	4
	Vyacheslav Zaytsev	Soviet Union	1974	1986	2	2	–	4

Multiple medalists

The table shows players who have won at least 4 medals in total at the World Championships.

Rank	Player	Country	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Josef Musil	Czechoslovakia	1952	1966	2	3	–	5
2	Bohumil Golián	Czechoslovakia	1956	1966	2	2	–	4
	Vyacheslav Zaytsev	Soviet Union	1974	1986	2	2	–	4
4	Jaromír Paldus	Czechoslovakia	1949	1960	1	3	–	4
5	Bruno Rezende	Brazil	2010	2022	1	2	1	4
	Lucas Saatkamp	Brazil	2010	2022	1	2	1	4
7	Gheorghe Corbeanu	Romania	1956	1966	–	2	2	4
	Eduard Derzsei	Romania	1956	1966	–	2	2	4
	Horaţiu Nicolau	Romania	1956	1966	–	2	2	4