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US Viewership Breaks World Cup Records, Can’t Touch Africa

US Viewership Breaks World Cup Records, Can’t Touch Africa

American love for football — or soccer, as it’s known in the U.S. — is growing, but doesn’t compare to the passion African nations have demonstrated for the World Cup, according to Denver-based market research company GeoPoll.

ESPN reported 16.9 million Americans watched the USA-Belgium game in the Round of 16, and even more tuned in for the USA-Portugal game — 18.2 million Americans saw USA tie the game 2-2. This has been reported as the most non-football viewed ESPN telecast in the US.

However, just as African viewers showed loyalty to African teams, the record-breaking U.S. viewership was mostly associated with U.S. games, according to GeoPoll.

Throughout the 2014 World Cup, GeoPoll has measured daily TV viewership through mobile surveys in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda. The data sheds light on team popularity, gender breakdown, and viewership in Africa compared to the U.S.

Although the Brazil-Chile game was the highest-rated non-U.S. World Cup game ever recorded, it only drew 6.1 million U.S. viewers. That’s less than 2 percent of the total U.S. population. By comparison, about 7.7 percent of the total combined populations of Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and Tanzania tuned in according to GeoPoll.

African viewership by teams

When Nigeria played, between 15 million and 25.1 million viewers tuned in, with the highest viewership during the first Nigeria game played against Iran. The second most-watched game also involved an African team — Ghana — with 24.5 million tuned in across the five countries to watch them lose to Germany.

Although Africans were most tuned in for home teams, GeoPoll’s data demonstrates the popularity of several international teams, especially now that all African nations have been eliminated. Germany has had high viewership throughout, partly due to its strong standing in the tournament, and because it played two African teams: Ghana and Algeria. German games attracted between 14.8 and 24.5 million adult viewers in Africa, for an average viewership of 20.5 million through the Round of 16.

By comparison, the USA team had an average of 14.6 million viewers across its games. Brazil has also been a popular team to watch: 24.9 million tuned in to their match against Chile.

World Cup 2014 African viewership per game Source: http://blog.geopoll.com/popular-world-cup-teams-and-gender-trends
World Cup 2014 African viewership per game
Source: http://blog.geopoll.com/popular-world-cup-teams-and-gender-trends

Gender trends in African viewership

Twice as many males are watching the games as females. Across all games and countries through the Round of 16, the gender split has been 67-percent male to 33-percent female. Female viewership has not exceeded a total of 10.5 million across all five countries, and no games had more female than male viewers.

While males consistently tuned in to games, females tuned in most to games involving African teams. The four games with the highest female viewership numbers all involved African teams, and the highest female-viewed game was Germany-Ghana, which drew 14.3 million males and 10.3 million females.

Source: http://blog.geopoll.com/popular-world-cup-teams-and-gender-trends
Source: http://blog.geopoll.com/popular-world-cup-teams-and-gender-trends