The Qatar World Cup is now a matter of months away with arguably the Worlds biggest sporting event taking place in the Middle East for the first time ever. The FIFA World Cup tends to topple the figures recorded by other huge sporting events such as the Tour de France and the NFL Super Bowl.
Football is the world’s most popular sport so these figures are not incredibly surprising but they are also undoubtedly helped by the rarity of the competition. With the World Cup happening every four years it is much more exclusive compared to the other events which happen annually.
FIFA stated that across the World Cup in Russia, viewing figures reached 3.57 billion! With the sport growing in popularity year on year and being held for the first ever time in the Middle East, the potential increase of interest implies figures are sure to increase once again.
Don’t miss out on the greatest World Cup in history. 👀
Keep your eyes peeled for last-minute tickets coming 🔜 pic.twitter.com/1EGJakDQCF
— Road to 2022 (@roadto2022en) September 19, 2022
ExpressVPN’s infographic shows what drives sports streaming in the UK and, in terms of football, a team performing well is searched more often, or when a player scores a crucial goal their searches tend to increase massively. The general consensus for all sports is that athletes performing well or scoring a winning point in a big game will cause sudden spikes in sports streaming searches, but there are some anomalies.
For example, in UFC, the three most searched fights in the UK involved Khabib Nurmagomedov who is incredibly dominant in the sport, but in the US, Conor McGregor was searched more often likely due to McGregor’s large following in the nation.
In general, sports streaming increases massively when there is a huge event, and there will certainly be figures of several billion watching the World Cup this winter. With Qatar’s World Cup being the first in its region of the world, this could be what determines if viewing figures reach a new record.
There are over 400 million people living in the Middle East and many more can be accounted for in the Arab world in general. This year’s World Cup will offer a rare insight into Arab and Middle Eastern culture and for that reason, many who did not watch the previous event in Russia may tune in to this edition.
POV: You’re approaching Doha for the experience of a lifetime 😍✈️ #Qatar2022 pic.twitter.com/HXVsSeO6qB
— Road to 2022 (@roadto2022en) September 14, 2022
The previous World Cup managed to rake in figures, with around half the world’s population viewing the event and the popularity of the sport will have only grown since the event.
Figures from Europe, Africa, North and South America as well as eastern Asia and Oceania are always likely to be high with football being huge and many nations from these continents participating in the tournament. With the Middle East holding the tournament and having three of its nations compete, viewing figures from the region will surely be significant and could make a huge difference.
If several hundred million viewers could be accumulated from the region then viewing figures could reach over four billion and over half of the world’s population would be watching the event making the FIFA World Cup certainly the biggest sporting competition on Earth.
