World Cup Setting Viewership Highs Around the World

Since the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil started on the 12th of June, broadcasters in various countries have seen viewership for the tournament skyrocket as viewers flock in their droves to watch one of the most followed sporting events in the world.

The opening match between Brazil and Croatia. It is estimated that an estimated 8 out of 10 Brazillian tv viewers tuned in to the match, exculding the tens of thousands that watched at viewing parties, fan parks and other group viewing venues like bars. On Facebook, 16 million Brazilian users were actively posting on the World Cup opener. In the US, the match averaged 9.5 million viewers across ESP and Univision. In the UK 12.6 million viewers tuned in to the match on ITV and Spain averaged 8.4 million viewers. In Germany, the opener was seen by 15.87 million viewers as well.
 
The host nations second match against Mexico was seen by approximately 8 out of 10 Brazillians, according to ratings agency Ibope while broadcaster Globo says that 60% of all connected devices, including TV's, cellphones and computers, were tuned to the match. The match, which aired in European primetime was seen by an average of 8.48 million people in the UK on BBC1, 14.17 million viewers in Germany, 9.4 million in France, 9.6 million in Italy (excludes viewership on the pay tv channel, Sky Italia), 2.06 million in Sweden and 3.5 million in the Netherlands.

12 Million Italians tuned in at midnight to watch their country's team defeat England 2-1 on Sky Italia and free-to-air broadcaster RAI, enough to set an audience share record in that country. Over in England, BBC One averaged 11.5 million viewers. The match also set a viewership record in the USA where 4.62 million viewers helped ESPN to its highest rated first round match not including the US national team.

Germany's 4-0 thrashingof Portugal was seen by a massive 26.36 million Germans (an enormous 81.8% audience share) on public broadcaster ARD. In the UK the match was seen by an impressive 7.2 million viewers as well.

In the United States, where soccer is a less popular yet rapidly growing sport, their national team's victory over African side Ghana became the most watched soccer match in US history (and also the most watched show on all of US tv for Monday). What makes the feat even more extraordinary is that the match took place at 6pm Eastern Time (US time zone), outside primetime. It aired on two channels, ESPN and free to air Spanish channel Univision. The ESPN broadcast, on pay tv, was seen by an average of 11.1 million viewers, while Univision averaged 4.8 million viewers, for a total of 15.9 million people who watched on tv, in addition to1.7 million viewers who streamed the match from Univisions website.

In Spain, an average of 11.2 million people tuned in to watch the country's national soccer team go down 5-1 to the Netherlands whilst 7.5 million viewes tuned in in the Netherlands. The match also averaged 14.6 million viewers in another European country, Germany.

In Chile, the elimination of the defending champions by their national team set new ratings records. The match averaged a 54% share across two networks, Canal 13 (cable) and TVN,enough to break the record held by the 2010 Chilean Mining Disaster. These figures actually exclude the viewership held by a third broadcaster, DirectTV, which, though are expected to lift these figures higher, traditionally has a much smaller share compared to the other broadcasters.

In Japan, public broadcaster NHK scored a 46.6 audience share for the nations opener against the Ivory Coast, a record for a morning kick off in that country. However, television viewership in the country is expected to slowly decrease as more Japanese people choose to attend viewing parties for the matches. So, while ratings may decrease, actual viewership may be on the rise. The Tokyo Dome hosted 35 000 Japanese fans for the match.

In Canada, a country that is not particularly known for its soccer skills, sharing time zones with Brazil mean that matches air during particularly favourable time slots, and the ratings have shown. The opening match between Brazil and Croatian averaged 1.6 million viewers, according to BBM Canada, over 70% higher than the opener in 2010. 2.73 Million viewers tuned in for England's loss to Italy as well.

The World Cup is being seen in all corners of the world, including North Korea, where the matches are aired nearly 24 hours after they occured, as the broadcaster edits the match before airing it. Often it is so heavily edited that the commentary and audio from the crowd is completely out of sync with the picture.

These numbers, as impressive as they are, are set to rise even further when viewership across the likes of Africa,  major countries like China and India, and many others are factored in as well