Almost half the world’s online population plans to tune in to the World Cup, according to GlobalWebIndex

Almost half the world’s online population plans to tune into the Fifa World Cup in Russia according to research from GlobalWebIndex.

The company surveyed 80,267 people from more than 40 leading markets, finding numerous insights for marketers to capitalise on. Notably, 47% of the online population plans to watch the Fifa World Cup this summer.

Over half (55%) of male internet users will watch the World Cup either online or on TV. Furthermore,  just over a  third (37%)  of female internet users polled said they would tune in.

For brands it is business as usual too, despite concerns around brand safety due to the tournament being held in Russia.

The event holds a significantly greater appeal than the Premier League across all regions. In Europe for example, the audience for the World Cup among internet users (47%) is significantly higher than that of the Premier League (25%),

31% of women said they would tune into the World Cup, the same volume that regularly tap into the Premier League. 42% of internet users in the UK aged over 55 said that they will be tuning in either online or on TV.

The apps that will be most used by World Cup viewers in Europe are YouTube (90%), Facebook (76%), WhatsApp (65%), Facebook Messenger (49%), Instagram (48%) and Twitter (39%). This trend holds strong globally except in North America where Snapchat is favoured to Twitter.

China, which has its own ecosystem of apps and services favours WeChat (88%), Youku (71%), Sina Weibo (70%), QZone (63%), Tencent Weibo (49%) and Tudou (44%).

Source: The Drum

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