But his haul was matched in equally sensational fashion on the second night of racing at the Duna Arena as Ben Proud thundered his way to a first global title in the 50m butterfly gold.
Peaty, 22, did not so much as reel in his rivals as leave them trailing in his wake as the Olympic champion finished a fraction outside his own world record time set last summer in Rio.
Swap Brazil for Budapest and there is simply no stopping the brilliance he can inflict in 50m pools across the globe.
Entering the arena to a raucous welcome, Peaty thundered his way to the turn under the pace he set at last summer’s Rio Olympics.
Peaty clocked 57.47 seconds, a championship record time and just 0.34 seconds outside of his own personal best.
And he even had time to process victory before American Kevin Cordes touched for silver, 1.32 secs behind. Yes, there was at least a record here. Peaty’s time was the biggest margin of victory in the event’s history.
Peaty’s continued dominance on the world stage means that his mum, Caroline, is now beginning to rack up the air miles after travelling on a plane for the first time when they cheered him on in Rio.
Along with the Union Jack being unfurled across her chair in the arena, there was a smattering of British support elsewhere in the 12,000 throng last night.
Peaty lapped up the moment. “I find the flag so motivating,” he said. “As soon as I look at that in the crowd, it’s game time. I just love racing. I love doing it for my family. I love making them proud.”
Peaty’s long-term mission is “Project 56”, clocking under 57 seconds for the first time, and then another gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
On the evidence here – he now has the 10 fastest swims in history – in front of a knowledgable, if partisan swimming crowd, Peaty is turning into a global sportstar. And that’s before he lands in breaststroke-mad Japan.
An emotional Caroline said: “Sometimes it’s hard to believe but he is now one of the swimming stars. He is now one of them. I really feel it.”
British swimming observers have known for some time that Proud has the same potential.
A British record 22.75 secs confirmed just that as he bagged his first major title after finishing fourth in the 50m Olympic freestyle final.
Nicholas Santos of Brazil was denied a fairytale gold at the age of 37 by the tenacious 22-year-old, who won by 0.04 secs.
Proud, who now trains in Turkey with coach James Gibson, had to look several times at the scoreboard and then looking at his fellow swimmers for another celebration.
He said: “The past 24 hours have been a mental battle to get my head in the right place so I could go into this race not even thinking about medals, not even thinking about winning, thinking all about that first 15 metres.”
So did four of his rivals, as a quintet blasted off the blocks within 0.01secs of each other. But Proud stole a march in the closing stages to notch the greatest moment of his career.
“I was going to keep going until my mid-30s until I was the 50 fly world champion,” added Proud. “For it to happen in my third world championships is a true blessing.”
On another memorable evening for British swimmers, Duncan Scott and James Guy qualified first and second fastest for tomorrow night’s men’s 200m freestyle final.
Scott and Guy, aged 20 and 21 respectively, looked in fine fettle as the pair demoted China’s Olympic champion, Sun Yang, into third.
The youngest British finalist last night belonged to Scotland’s Kathleen Dawson, who sneaked into the women’s 100m backstroke.
Peaty, the standard bearer, is simply relishing the youthful exuberance. “We have quite a young team, renewed after Rio, so this is hopefully going to give them a little bit of a push, so they don’t really fear anyone, don’t fear any other country that they might face.”
