With the historic FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 completing the first week, the statistics given by the game’s governing body speak about the success of the start of first-ever edition of the football showpiece in the Middle East and the Arab world. As all the 32 teams are in action during the group stage, the matches are witnessing eight state-of-the-art stadiums operating at almost full capacity. The FIFA has already sold more than 3 million tickets for the tournament.
After the first round of the group stage, matches were completed, official figures showed that the average overall match attendance stands at an impressive 94%, compared to stadium capacities for the event.
According to FIFA, the highest match attendance of the tournament was the game at Lusail Stadium on November 24, with 88,103 there to see Brazil blanking Serbia 2-0 in their first match. On the same day, the FIFA Fan Festival in Doha’s Al Bidda Park also achieved its highest accumulative attendance, with a total of 98,000 fans throughout the day.
In terms of viewership across the globe, the preliminary figures for the opening match of Qatar 2022 showed an increase in viewers, compared to the corresponding match in Russia four years ago. The opening game between Qatar and Ecuador on November 20 was watched by an average of 3.3 million viewers, with a peak audience of 3.6 million, in Ecuador. This represented a 109% increase in viewership of the opening game in the country, compared to the highest rating in the last two editions of the FIFA World Cup.
In addition, in Brazil attracted an audience share — the percentage of people watching at the time — of 50% on TV Globo. The average audience for the game of 24.36 million was 6% higher than for the opening game of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, between hosts Russia and Saudi Arabia, which was aired on the same channel (22.86 million viewers). European audiences were also higher than the opening game in Russia. In the United Kingdom, BBC1’s coverage of the game attracted an average audience of 6.25 million viewers, representing a 57.5% increase on the opening match of the previous World Cup, and an audience share of 47.1%, according to FIFA.
Overall, Qatar World Cup in its second week now has been a roaring success though there was some disappointment for the home side which was eliminated from the tournament after suffering second successive defeat in their group. The tournament has also witnessed upsets in the opening week with Saudi Arabia registering a stunning victory over Argentina, with Japan shocking four-time winners Germany in the first round of group stage.
