In six languages across multiple digital platforms, FIFA engaged international football fans around the globe as they thirsted for coverage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup™ Final Draw.

Those supporters who came to FIFA’s flagship offering on the Internet were treated to a surprise as FIFA.com was relaunched just in time for the event held at Moscow’s Kremlin State Palace.

The day of the Draw saw the site record its third-highest traffic for a single day in 2017, this in an amazing year that included very popular events such as The Best, the FIFA Confederations Cup and the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Visitors were on the edge of their seats as teams were drawn from their pots, and they spent an average of almost 10 minutes using the Live Blog application.

FIFA Digital continued its pursuit of innovative and thorough coverage by also launching interactive guides for each of the 32 finalists as well as the history and results of the Draw.

Likewise on social media, FIFA engaged users across all devices throughout the day. On Facebook, a post @FIFAWorldCup announcing the results of the Draw reached over 20 million fans, generated over 670,000 interactions and was shared by fans, teams and players over 100,000 times.

On Instagram, the draw resulted in FIFA’s most popular post ever with over 320,000 likes, and half of the year’s top ten posts came in the week of the draw. The Instagram stories from behind the scenes with Legends and the gathered football world delighted fans with the app.

More records were set on Twitter as a single post on @FIFAWorldCup had over 50,000 retweets. FIFA also launched dedicated hashtag emojis in six languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Russian and Arabic), and as the draw commenced, four trended worldwide.

On the Russian social network VK, @FIFAWorldCup had its biggest ever week and became one of the few pages to utilise the new VK Stories tool.

Live streaming the day of the Draw on YouTube was viewed over two million times resulting in over four million minutes consumed.