British football fans have all made the same point about the Super Bowl on social media.
On Sunday, Patrick Mahomes threw a walk-off touchdown in overtime to see the Kansas City Chiefs claim a thrilling 25-22 victory at Super Bowl LVIII.
America’s annual showpiece event featured Taylor Swift watching on in the stands, Usher performing a 13-minute medley at half-time and Mahomes continuing to entrench himself among the game’s greats.
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Despite the Super Bowl's glitzy half-time show and on-field heroics, several UK-based football fans have noted that the event gets relatively little attention from non-US audiences.
According to the Wall Street Journal, some 115 million viewers tuned in for last year’s matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, making it the most-watched U.S. show in history. Swift’s influence is likely to have seen even greater viewing figures this year.
However, those figures pale in comparison with the World Cup.
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Indeed, FIFA claimed in January 2023 that 1.5 billion people tuned in worldwide to watch Lionel Messi claim his first World Cup crown in Argentina’s thrilling penalty victory over France. The Qatar tournament as a whole was said to have resulted in "almost six billion engagements on social media".
Moreover, the Champions League final is widely reported to generate 700 million viewers while, according to FC Business, a recent El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid attracted 650 million viewers and was broadcast live in 182 countries.
Football fans have taken to social media to compare the interest each sport generates.
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Writing on X, formally Twitter, one person said: “Global audience for the Superbowl is lower than for a Champions League final.
“Also much less global interest than there is in a World Cup final - maybe one-third?? Superbowl is massive in the U.S. - nothing comes close - limited to no interest elsewhere.”
Moreover, another person said: “The football World Cup final gets 10 times the Super Bowl in TV audiences worldwide.”
A third added: “Yeah it's massive only in America. Football is a global sport.”
Topics: Football, NFL, Super Bowl, Football World Cup, Champions League
Chris Byfield