# What was the most watched live event ever?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 6, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499 "2014-07-06T21:48:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/1 "2014-07-06T21:48:25Z")
I’ve been watching the first couple of stages of the Tour de France which have been held in England (Yorkshire). They had around [2.5 million people](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-28179818) over the two days.
So this would be at least 1.25 million people actually there watching a live one-day sporting event. Could this be a record for a live event, sporting or otherwise?
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### Author:  [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/2 "2014-07-06T22:00:12Z")
Depends on what you mean by an event. I’m sure more people than that have watched some solar eclipse live. But if you count that, I’d guess a lunar eclipse would beat it. They obviously only occur at night, but are visible to half the earth.
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/3 "2014-07-06T22:11:12Z")
The USA-Portugal match in the World Cup had 24.7 million in the USA alone. That was a new US record for any live sporting event, nearly doubting most World Series baseball games. Brazil-Croiatia match was 47 million just in Brazil.
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### Author:  [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/4 "2014-07-06T22:19:59Z")
> [@jtur88](#):
>
> The USA-Portugal match in the World Cup had 24.7 million in the USA alone. That was a new US record for any live sporting event, nearly doubting most World Series baseball games. Brazil-Croiatia match was 47 million just in Brazil.
That’s nowhere near a record for live sports in the US. I can well believe it’s a record for soccer, but the 2014 Super Bowl had over [111 million viewers.](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/super-bowl-2014-ratings-set-new-record/)
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/5 "2014-07-06T22:23:48Z")
The last US Football Super Bowl went over 160 million.
The record is probably the burning of the Twin Towers on 9-11, but I cannot find any figures on that, and if anybody knows, it is not something anyone would be in a hurry to proclaim. It is coneivable that the number of people who saw at least part of that live coverage was around a billion, worldwide.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/6 "2014-07-06T22:27:21Z")
I think the OP was looking for the largest number of people actually at the event, not watching on TV. And there’s a [Wikipedia list](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_peaceful_gatherings_in_history) of the largest peaceful gatherings. Some of these events, mostly religious gatherings, have many millions of people.
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### Author:  [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/7 "2014-07-06T22:30:39Z")
Apollo 11 moonwalk?
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/8 "2014-07-06T22:32:38Z")
> [@Keeve](#):
>
> Apollo 11 moonwalk?
Yes, everyone who looked up at the moon saw it live, but they weren’t very good seats, and it was hard to make out the action.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/9 "2014-07-06T22:37:54Z")
> [@Keeve](#):
>
> Apollo 11 moonwalk?
That’s what I thought when I saw the thread title. Obviously on TV, but live in the sense of “as it happened.” But I have no idea what the audience numbers were.
At least four, though: me, my parents, and Burt Cooper. Probably others besides.
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### Author:  [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/10 "2014-07-06T22:43:03Z")
The Crucifixion. I mean, with all of those time travelers who go back to watch it …
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### Author:  [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/11 "2014-07-06T22:46:27Z")
Missed the edit window. Anyway, regarding Apollo 11, Wikipedia says that “…images of the first lunar EVA were received and broadcast to at least 600 million people on Earth…” Suck on that, World Cup!
> **[Apollo 11](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11#Mission_highlights)**
>
> Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, and Armstrong became the first person to step onto the Moon's surface six hours and 39 minutes later, on July 21 at 02:56 UTC. Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later, and they spent about two and a quarter hours together exploring the site they had named Tranquility Base upo...
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### Author:  [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/12 "2014-07-06T23:16:03Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#):
>
> Missed the edit window. Anyway, regarding Apollo 11, Wikipedia says that “…images of the first lunar EVA were received and broadcast to at least 600 million people on Earth…” Suck on that, World Cup!
From Wikipedia:
" The cumulative audience of all matches of the 2006 World Cup is estimated to be 26.29 billion.[1] 715.1 million individuals watched the final match of this tournament (a ninth of the entire population of the planet). "
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/13 "2014-07-06T23:17:42Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#):
>
> Missed the edit window. Anyway, regarding Apollo 11, Wikipedia says that “…images of the first lunar EVA were received and broadcast to at least 600 million people on Earth…” Suck on that, World Cup!
>
> [Apollo 11 - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11#Mission_highlights)
900 million people saw at least 1 minute of the 2010 World Cup final. 620 million for at leas 20 minutes consecutively. 540 million average audience.
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### Author:  [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/14 "2014-07-06T23:22:15Z")
I don’t really see the entire World Cup as one event.
The Apollo moon landings were extremely watched in terms of percentages of persons with television. I believe essentially every place on earth that had television broadcasts aside from the countries behind the Iron Curtain were showing it live, and I don’t believe much if anything else was even being offered to view. So essentially if you weren’t under the Soviet thumb, had a television, and it was on during the moon landings that is what you were watching.
But television adoption was in its meteoric phase during this time, there were vastly more global television sets deployed in 1980 than 1969. In 2014 just about anywhere has some level of television exposure, that may not mean a television in a home, but it does mean places people can go to watch TV, even in very poor countries. This wasn’t really the case in 1969.
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### Author:  [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/15 "2014-07-07T01:37:43Z")
The OP is clearly talking about audiences that are physically present at the event.
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### Author:  [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/16 "2014-07-07T02:03:49Z")
Yeah, I think some people are confused.
There were about 1.25 million people THERE, on the actual road for the TdF. Not watching on TV, physically AT the event.
The TdF is a pretty big spectator sport with a lot of opportunity for live viewing of the event (along the sometimes 200km+ course). I can’t think of any venue that allows for that many people to attend a sporting event.
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### Author:  [@jsquire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsquire)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/17 "2014-07-07T02:19:06Z")
The New York City Marathon claims 2 million spectators, which I find hard to believe. This year’s Boston Marathon had its biggest spectator turnout ever and I’ve seen estimates of 1-2 million, which is also likely bogus. Both of those have spectators lining both sides of the course for pretty much the entirety of their 26 miles, while the rural parts of the TdF can be pretty desolate. TdF probably comes out ahead.
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### Author:  [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/18 "2014-07-07T03:06:53Z")
I would venture that the events of September 11, 2001 would put all of these in the shade in terms of live audience as well as broadcast TV.
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### Author:  [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/19 "2014-07-07T12:21:33Z")
> [@Keeve](#):
>
> Apollo 11 moonwalk?
Maybe, but it took place during the middle of the night on earth in mist places and early morning elsewhere.
I have read that the landing actually attracted more viewers.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-watched-live-event-ever/692499/20 "2014-07-07T13:04:34Z")
Wiki has a list of [largest live concerts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_concerts). Surprisingly, Rod Stewart in Rio one New Years came in at 3.5MM.
For television, if we’re counting watched, Live Aid has to be up there with an estimated same day audience of 1.9 billion.
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