FIFA have revealed that more than half of the world watched this year's World Cup in Russia.
The competition was broadcast live in every territory around the world from the 14th of June to the 15th of July, and a combined 3.572 billion viewers - more than half of the global population aged four and over - tuned into the competition.
The final, which saw France beat Croatia 4-2 in Moscow, was watched by an audience of 1.12 billion people. 884.37 million of those viewers tuned in to live TV coverage while the the remainder watched out-of-home and digitally.
Then we were treated to one of the most action-packed #WorldCup Finals for decades
☄️A @paulpogba piledriver
✨@KMbappe magic
️And a monsoon trophy lift
Truly unforgettablepic.twitter.com/nAJsWSRpNn— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) 15 December 2018
Over the 64 matches, the average live audience was 191 million: each game was a global televisual event in its own right.
FIFA’s Chief Commercial Officer, Philippe Le Floc’h said:
"These figures really do support the claim that Russia 2018 was the best World Cup ever."
"We're particularly pleased to see an increase in the average time viewers are engaging with matches, which shows that we are giving the fans what they want."
The fact that half the world’s population watched the FIFA World Cup reflects not just the high quality of our award-winning live coverage, but also that fans everywhere are insatiable for world-class football."
