I’m curious about this. It seems as though, growing up in the middle of the USA, it’s common knowledge that the Superbowl consistently attracts the largest worldwide audience of any sporting event.
When googling, I seem to find conflicting arguments about this… many claiming that the Superbowl numbers are grossly inflated, etc… especially outside of the U.S.
In my feeble attempt to fight my own ignorance, I’d like to know what’s common knowledge out there, and what is fact…
I doubt it. I’d have thought the World Cup games (particularly the final) drew a bigger audience.
I found this for 2003:
2003’s biggest sporting event
“By collecting data across 49 markets, we have been able to rank the
nine selected events in order of popularity. The Super Bowl was easily
the most popular event of the year, with a global audience of 93
million individuals.
(…)
The next biggest events of the year were the final of the Champions
League, which attracted 67 million individuals, and then the Brazilian
Grand Prix, the most popular of this season’s Formula 1 races, with 56
million individuals.
Next came the final of the Men’s 100 metres at the World Athletics
Championships, with 28 million individuals, in fifth place the Rugby
World Cup final, with 23 million viewers, and then the Cricket World
Cup final, with 20 million viewers.
Bringing up the rear came the final stage of the Tour de France which
featured the entry into Paris, with 19 million individuals, followed
by the final of the Men’s Singles at Wimbledon, watched by 15 million
individuals, and then finally the last game of the NBA Finals between
San Antonio and New Jersey, watched by only 12 million people.”
But this was not unexpected:
“Footnote: we checked the FIFA World Cup site and they report that the
viewership for the 2002 World Cup exceeded 1 billion.”
Football (you chaps call it soccer!) is worldwide and so people are far more likely to support a team. In any case, I’ll always watch the Brazilians, French and Dutch teams.
Meanwhile tonight’s Superbowl buildup starts at 23.00 on English TV. I don’t support either of the two teams, so I’ll watch a bit, then go to bed.
The World Cup final audience dwarfs that of the Super Bowl. The FIFA site claims that the 2002 final (Germany - Brazil) attracted over 1.1 billion people whereas a typical Super Bowl will attract no more than 100 million.
In a non-world cup year, soccer is still a bigger draw. Scroll down here for top sport viewing figures from 2004, which was dominated by the European Championship and the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies.
On preview I see that the Super Bowl was the biggest draw in 2003, but then there were no Olympics or major soccer tournaments. So it seems that the Super Bowl will will in odd years.
…or will win, even … :smack:
I think the question has been answered, so allow me to chip in with my impressions of historical British attitudes to the Superbowl:
1970s and earlier - a few people are vaguely aware of a rugby-like sport that Americans and Canadians hilariously call football. It’s nothing like proper football.
1980s - Channel Four start showing weekly NFL games and the Superbowl. For a while it is trendy to know about this exotic new sport, and players like William “the Fridge” Perry become minor celebrities.
Early 1990s - American Football craze wanes, Channel Four still doggedly showing it.
Late 1990s - Not too much American domestic sport on British TV. NFL football is relegated to satellite TV.
2000s - upstart Channel Five fills out its late night schedules with major league American baseball, football and hockey. They make a big deal of their Superbowl and World Series coverage.
mid 2000s - Channel Five must have been on to something because the Superbowl is now live on one of the bigger commercial networks.
Ummm - when was it on and what was scheduled against it? Late sunday night isn’t exactly a primetime viewing slot. ITV went with Agatha Christie and the News until 23:15, then showed the Superbowl until 0330 when they went over to People’s Court. BBC1 Had Panorama, a programme about Johnny Cash, then The Sky at Night, Weather View and Elephant Diaries(!!).
The NFL claimed more than 1 million UK viewers for the 2003 bowl, but I have no idea if that is accurate or not or what it was this year. It’s probably pretty feeble compared to the FA Cup Final, one of the big football Championships or a high profile test match (rugby or cricket).