The 22nd Fifa World Cup is almost here as Qatar prepares to host the 2022 edition of the competition, but how many people are likely to watch the final of football’s global event?
Well, Fifa president Gianni Infantino is expecting a record-break tournament for the first of the 22 World Cups to be held in the Middle East. The tournament starts when hosts Qatar meet Ecuador at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor on November 20 after the opening ceremony.
The last World Cup in Russia four years ago set the record for the largest audience across a tournament. A combined 3.5 billion people tuned in from all around the world to watch as the competition unfolded and France went on to clinch their second World Cup title so far.
How many people will watch the 2022 Fifa World Cup final in Qatar?
Infantino expects the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar will shatter the record set in Russia in 2018. The Fifa president predicts 5 billion people will watch the tournament later this year, as he pronounced whilst speaking at the World Economic Forum in May 2022 via Reuters.
“The last World Cup was watched by 4 billion people,” Infantino stated. “This World Cup in Qatar will be watched by 5 billion people, way above half of the world’s population.
“Well, what is so special about football, I think, is every single one of these 5 billion people probably has his own answer to that particular question.
“But, of course, if you analysis it a little bit more in depth you realise that football is actually quite unique, it has different dimensions. Football has definitely got an economic dimension, it has a social dimension, as well, then it has an emotional dimension.”
How many people watched the final of Russia 2018?
A Fifa audit following the last World Cup in Russia four years ago showed 3.5 billion people watched the tournament. The total included those who watched the competition on TV at home, on digital platforms and in public viewing settings across the 64 games to be played.
The final between France and Croatia in Moscow alone attracted a worldwide audience of 1.1 billion. Goals from Mario Mandzukic (OG), Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe decided the tie in favour of Les Bleus around goals by Ivan Perisic and Mandzukic.
Fifa’s audit showing 3.5 billion people watched the 2018 Russia World Cup finals revealed 3.2 billion watched through home TVs. Another 310 million people used digital platforms, public viewing areas and/or bars and restaurants to stay up to date with the tournament.
The average live viewership per-game across the 64 matches at the 2018 edition was 191 million. Those watching at home also engaged for longer than four years earlier in Brazil, with people watching 30 or more minutes rising from 1.95 billion in 2014 to 2.49 billion.
Yet while the World Cup final attracted a worldwide audience of 1.1 billion in Russia, it was only a slight increase on the number of people who watched the final of Brazil 2014. ESPN cite a Fifa report showed 1 billion people had watched the World Cup final eight years ago.
The total focuses on any person who watched at least one minute of Germany’s win over Argentina. The average in-home global audience of the 2014 final was also 570.1 million, increasing from 530.9 million for the final between Spain and the Netherlands in 2010.
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