The 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia ended half a year ago, but its "global broadcast and audience summary" just came out on FIFA's official website on December 21.
According to the report audited by Publicis Media Sports & Entertainment agency, over half of the global population saw coverage of the FIFA World Cup, with many people watching the event on digital platforms, and Asia, especially China, contributing the most viewers to the total reach.
Half of the Earth
The report showed that an estimated 3.572 billion people watched some official broadcast coverage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, but the in-home viewers represented 91.3 percent of the population, and 309.7 million people watched coverage on digital platforms.
Around 2.49 billion viewers watched at least 30 minutes of the 2018 FIFA World Cup coverage at home, 27.7 percent more than that of the 2014 edition.
Digital attraction
Compared with four years before, there was greater access to sports matches on digital platforms, and people got more used to paying for watching online.
Russia had 4 million unique users watching the Russia vs. Croatia quarter-final on Channel One's digital platform. CCTV got seven times the viewers for its coverage of the event than in 2014 on the official digital platform CNTV.
Fox Sports in the U.S. generated 60 million hours of digital viewing, and on BBC's digital platform, almost twice the 2014 final's digital watchers enjoyed the coverage of Sweden vs. England.
Popular Matches
On the global level, here are the top 10 most watched in-home matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in ascending order:
Germany vs. Sweden (Group F),
Uruguay vs. France (Quarter-final),
Brazil vs. Belgium (Quarter-final),
Brazil vs. Mexico (Round of 16),
Germany vs. Mexico (Group F),
France vs. Argentina (Round of 16),
Spain vs. Russia (Round of 16),
France vs. Belgium (Semi-final),
Croatia vs. England (Semi-final)
And of course, the final between France and Croatia was the most popular one as 1.1 billion people watched the live match for more than one minute.
Asian audiences
Proportionately, Asia's percentage of the population that saw televised FIFA World Cup coverage on any platform was ranked last compared with those on the other six continents, of which South America attained an astonishing 96.6 percent, but Asia contributed absolutely the most in the total number of viewers on all platforms. As for time, Asia and Europe respectively occupied around 30 percent of the total viewer hours, and China consumed 41 percent of the Asian portion.
(With input from FIFA's official website)