As the second leg of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ continues throughout the weekend, the question will be: can the games continue to attract the high number of viewers here in the United States and more importantly, abroad? The Group Stages of the World Cup reached record numbers of viewers across the world, with a breakthrough performance in the United States and even more impressive progress in Europe, Asia and the rest of the Americas.
All eight World Cup groups set viewing highs for at least one territory, underlining the breadth of football’s popularity across the world. The blockbuster figures support FIFA’s expectation of an increase in the global TV audience compared to the 3.2 billion reach of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™.
Director of FIFA TV Niclas Ericson said:
“We believe the overall audience figures from the 2014 FIFA World Cup will show again that the World Cup is the most popular single-sporting event on the planet and that football is the world’s number one sport. To see this overwhelming surge of interest in the United States is a true ‘watershed’ moment for the FIFA World Cup and for football. We have been thrilled to see the way the American fans are embracing the FIFA World Cup like never before.
“We have also seen some great numbers from Asia, Europe and other parts of the Americas,” Ericson continued, “which gives us confidence that this World Cup will prove to be the most popular ever in terms of TV audiences.”
Some of the key figures from the Group Stages in Brazil include:
USA: Portugal game was most watched football match ever on U.S. TV, higher than any of NBA Finals and higher than average of 2013 World Series 2013 (ESPN, UNIVISION: 24.7 million combined)
Brazil: Croatia match drew highest 2014 TV sports broadcast (TV Globo, Bandeirantes: 47.4 million combined)
France: Switzerland game reached largest TV audience since 2007 (TF1: 16.7 million)
Netherlands: Chile match reached biggest TV audience since 2010 FIFA World Cup Final™ (Ned 1: 8.1 million)
Germany: USA match attracted biggest TV audience in 2 years (ZDF: 27.3 million)
Italy: Uruguay game watched by biggest TV audience in 2 years (RAI 1, Sky Mondiale, RAI Sport: 19.3 million combined)
UK: Uruguay game drew biggest TV audience in 2 years (ITV: 17.9 million)
Spain: Chile match attracted biggest TV audience for 2 years (Telecinco: 13.2 million)
Japan: Ivory Coast game was biggest sports broadcast of 2014 (NHK: 34.1 million)
My answer to the opening question is ‘yes!’ With soccer fever that just a few days ago was at an all-time high, perhaps some casual soccer fans have had their interest heightened. Here in the United States, fans who have not gotten over the USMNT loss to Belgium may still want to watch some very competitive soccer on the pitch.
If anything, it gives the fans in the U.S. a chance to see just how far soccer has come in the states and how far it needs to go before we can “truly” consider ourselves a world power in the sport.