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The start of the knockout phase of the 2018 FIFA World Cup saw drama, tension and goalkeeping heroics aplenty on Match Days 16 and 17. This is where the FIFA World Cup excels and audiences were up in many territories around the world, most notably in those of the participating teams. The hosts had the nation behind them as they held their nerve for a surprise upset against Spain on Sunday, and the luxury of Saturday-evening viewing brought notably high neutral audiences in China and Italy.
Match Day 16: France v. Argentina, Uruguay v. Portugal
– TV Publica’s live audience for the Albiceleste’s Round of 16 tie with France (kick-off 11:00 local time) was 8.92 million viewers (21.5% rating, 60.8% share). This was the country’s highest audience of the tournament so far, beating the 7.71 million viewers attracted by TV Publica for coverage of Argentina v. Nigeria. This was also the highest single programme audience recorded in Argentina in 2018 so far. Combined with coverage simulcast by Pay-TV broadcaster TyC Sports, which added a further 745,000 viewers, the national audience was 9.66 million. Source: Zenith Argentina
– Canale 5’s live primetime coverage of Uruguay v. Portugal attracted an average audience of 7.63 million viewers, equivalent to a 42.9% share of viewing. This was the highest rated match of the tournament so far across Italian television. Uruguay’s stylish win beat the previous highest rated game, which was Brazil v. Switzerland (Match Day 4: 7.46 million viewers, 36.3% share). Meanwhile, 6.16 million viewers watched the afternoon match between France and Argentina (47.4% share), the highest non-prime time audience of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ so far in Italy. Source: Mediaset
– Coverage of France v. Argentina aired at 21:51 on Saturday evening in China. CCTV-5’s broadcast attracted an average audience of 44.05 million viewers (share 22.4%), which is the second highest audience of the tournament so far in China behind Argentina v. Iceland (44.74 million viewers) and reflects the consistently high audience figures seen so far during the competition. This is higher than any sports audience in China in 2017. Source: CCTV
Match Day 17: Russia v. Spain, Croatia v. Denmark
– Coverage of Russia’s euphoric penalty-shootout victory over Spain on RTR Russia 1 achieved a rating of 18.6% (equivalent to an audience of 23.90 million viewers). This is the highest rated FIFA World Cup broadcast in Russia since 2002, when ORT (now called Channel One) recorded a rating of 22.6% (equivalent to 26.28 million viewers) for coverage of Japan v. Russia. 57.7% of all Russian television viewers at the time watched the coverage, the highest market share of the tournament so far. It was also the highest rated broadcast since Vladimir Putin’s New Year speech in December 2017 (27.6% combined rating across Channel One and Russia 1), and higher than any other broadcast in 2017. Source: RTR
– An average audience of 13.17 million viewers watched Russia v. Spain on T5, achieving a 29.5% rating. On average, 73.9% of all Spanish television viewers tuned in to Russia v. Spain, the highest share of the tournament so far. Extra time was watched by an average audience of 13.84 million viewers, up from the 12.79 million viewers who watched during regulation time. The penalty shootout was watched by an average audience of 14.83 million viewers, peaking at 15.14 million for the final penalty (18:40 local time) – share for the penalty shootout was 81.1%. Source: Mediaset ES
– DR1’s live primetime coverage of Croatia v. Denmark was watched by an average audience of 2.07 million viewers (37.1% of the potential audience and an 88.2% share), making it the most viewed TV programme in Denmark in four years. It was also higher than any other FIFA World Cup broadcast since the 1998 edition, when two games got more viewers (Brazil v. Denmark, 2.39 million, and Denmark v. Nigeria, 2.26 million). Source: DR
– HTV 2’s live primetime coverage of Croatia v. Denmark achieved an average audience of 1.46 million viewers, the highest rated match of the tournament so far (37.2% TVR), ahead of Croatia’s Group D match against Iceland which averaged 1.28 million viewers (31.4% TVR, 73.5% share). This was also the highest rated broadcast of any kind in 2018 so far. The share for the broadcast was 81.1%, over eleven times the channel’s average (6.8%). Source: EBU
Note: Unless specifically referenced, these figures are preliminary and do not include digital streaming or out-of-home viewing. FIFA’s final audience report, available after the competition, will include audiences from all markets across all match days.
