FIFA’s analysis of this summer’s World Cup in Russia declared the event the “most engaging” tournament in history, with more than 7.5 billion engagements and 1.25 billion video views across all platforms.
The website for soccer’s governing body, FIFA.com, led the world in traffic and its FIFA app ranked No. 1 for downloads in 128 countries, according to the published report. Its official social media platforms also secured more than 580 million visits during the month-long tournament.
An online survey spanning 22 countries and 13 languages received 26,000 responses and found that 22 percent of tournament viewership watched from home or on computers and mobile devices. That’s a significant number but short of pre-World Cup estimates from the Interactive Advertising Bureau that reported 36 percent of fans planning to stream from mobile phones and 26 percent percent on computers.
Final numbers had not been compiled, but FIFA estimated that the 2018 World Cup would be “the most-viewed sporting ever on digital platforms.” That comes thanks to various new streaming records in China, France, the U.K., and even the U.S., despite its men’s team not qualifying for the tournament.
The U.S. set records for both its English coverage on FOX and Spanish coverage on Telemundo. FOX more than doubled its streaming record for a single month—previously set during the 2017 NFL season.
SportTechie Takeaway
As more sports fans cut the cord, digital consumption will inevitably increase every four years. However, FIFA is probably especially heartened by the records set not only in the U.S. but also in China, another massive market whose country didn’t participate. China wants to host a future World Cup, and several Chinese companies are major sponsors. Chinese fans bought more tickets than English fans and logged 6.5 billion visits to CNTV digital platforms to stream live or on demand—that’s seven times the audience of the 2014 World Cup.