Why are temperatures within a few degrees of the all-time high actually pretty common?

I see from a news report that the all-time high temperature, anywhere on Earth, is 129 F. But temperatures within 10 degrees of that record are not rare, and temperatures within 20 degrees are pretty widespread. Why does there seem to be a ceiling on the high temperature, such that a lot of places approach that temperature and don’t exceed it? A related question — why isn’t the high temperature much higher, such as, I don’t know, 150 degrees?

In contrast, the coldest temperature is -129 F, and few places ever get anywhere near that. Why is there such a disparity between high temperatures and low temperatures in that way?

EDIT: By the way, I apologize for the US-centric temperature measurements. I hope I got the point across nonetheless.