Global TV audience
TV audiences from around the world engaged with the tournament in record-breaking numbers across multiple markets.
Initial figures suggest that around 5 billion people engaged with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, following tournament content via an array of platforms and devices across the media universe. The final achieved a global reach of close to 1.5 billion viewers (up from 1.12 billion in 2018), with the opening match registering a global reach of over 550 million.
What follows offers information on some of the most significant TV audiences recorded during the tournament, while the full consolidated report on audience data will be published in the coming months, as per previous editions of the FIFA World Cup.
France
An all-time national viewing record was set in France, with 93% of the country’s television audience (53m) watching TF1’s coverage of the final. This exceeded the 19.3 million who tuned in for the 2018 final between France and Croatia.
USA
The USA twice broke its audience record, with the highest viewing figures recorded during the England v. USA group-stage match and the final, which attracted a combined audience of almost 26 million on FOX Sports, which was the most-watched English-language World Cup broadcast. It was also the most-streamed FIFA World Cup match in US media history.
Brazil
The tournament attracted 173 million viewers in Brazil (81% of the total population). The 36.9 million viewers who tuned in for the final on TV Globo, SporTV and SporTV2 made it the highest neutral match audience of the tournament.
Japan
Some 36 million watched Japan’s second group-stage match v. Costa Rica on TV Asahi, making it the country’s most-watched programme in 2022, with an audience share of 66%.
Sponsorship
Affiliates
The FIFA World Cup Commercial Affiliates helped to bring the tournament closer to fans both globally and in Qatar by activating more than 600 special marketing programmes and contributing to the successful delivery of the competition across multiple functional areas.
The tournament was backed by a full quota of FIFA Partners, FIFA World Cup Sponsors and Regional Supporters after FIFA sold all of its sponsorship tiers and inventory for the global extravaganza.
The lineup included:
seven FIFA Partners and global FIFA World Cup Sponsors apiece; and
18 Regional Supporters across FIFA’s five regions: Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, North America and South America.
The collaborations spanned multiple sectors and covered rights packages ranging from extensive brand and digital exposure and association to bespoke offerings designed for specific fan and customer engagement initiatives.
Licensing
The sale of licensing rights achieved excellent results in the 2022 cycle, with revenues over 25% higher than in the 2015-2018 cycle. FIFA ran its largest ever licensing and retail programme at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, with retail revenues exceeding the previous edition of the tournament in 2018. As well as tournament stores, a permanent flagship FIFA Store launched at Doha’s Hamad International Airport in November.
A total of 154 FIFA Store outlets were opened across the eight stadiums.
Bestselling items included the La’eeb mascot soft toy, official adidas match ball, replica FIFA World Cup Trophy and team supporter T-shirts.
FIFA Youth Programme
A total of 3,200 children participated in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Youth Programme as player escorts, flag carriers and members of the ball crew. They took to the pitch alongside the players during the match day ceremonies and performed their roles in stadiums packed full of fans.
Breakdown of programme participants:
Flag bearers: 1,152
Player escorts: 1,408
Ball crew: 192
Wanda FIFA flag carrier: 384
KIA official match ball carrier: 64
Media coverage
Qatar 2022 received the largest media coverage in FIFA World Cup history, with thousands of media professionals and journalists reporting on the tournament.