January 2 – UEFA’s Euro 2024 championships were the most streamed sports event in 2024, with a cumulative global audience of more than 5 billion globally, comfortably beating the 2024 Paris Olympics that was streamed by more than 3 billion.
Football dominated the ranking of most-streamed sports events in 2024 with four entries in the top 10 – the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) ranked 7th, the UEFA Champions League 8th and the Copa America 9th.
The ranking, compiled by ExpressVPN, does not take into account the split between events being streamed illegally and legally.
Interest in Euro 2024 also dominated online searches, peaking at 30.4 million during the tournament. Germany naturally led the way, with fans from Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and even as far afield as Vietnam eagerly following every goal, upset, and victory.
Perhaps the surprise entry in the top 10 of the ranking is the 2024 AFCON, hosted in Côte d’Ivoire, which his a cumulative global audience of more than 1.4 billion viewers globally across the whole tournament.
The semi-final between Nigeria and South Africa alone drew in a unique audience of 10.3 million viewers, setting a new viewership record for the tournament.
On social media the tournament saw 2.1 billion digital engagements, with 3.1 billion views on TikTok videos and an impressive 12.5 million views on Instagram.
There were 4 million searches in January and 2.2 million in February as fans tracked each game. The tournament drew particularly intense interest from Liberia, South Sudan, Gambia, Namibia, and Uganda.
As well as the top slot, UEFA also held the eighth position with its Champions League which, by the time the final took place at London’s Wembley Stadium in June, the cumulative global audience had surged, with over 450 million viewers tuning in for the season’s grand finale.
Social media activity was also off the charts, with content surrounding key matches generating approximately 3.3 billion interactions. American viewership continued to climb, with English- and Spanish-language broadcasts averaging 3.62 million viewers per game.
Search interest for the Champions League peaked at 2.7 million in April, driven by the intensity of the knockout rounds.
It will irritate the South Americans that they were behind both UEFA (twice) and CAF with the 2024 Copa América, hosted in the United States from June 20 to July 14, but the numbers were nevertheless strong.
In Brazil, Copa América viewership surged to 84.6 million, an 82% jump from the 2021 edition. Argentina’s journey to the final captured 58.98% of TV viewers, with a semifinal match against Canada drawing nearly identical ratings to their 2022 World Cup final. Colombia also saw impressive numbers, with peak viewership for their final match
Copa América’s digital footprint expanded significantly. Venezuela’s Televen Stream emerged as a key platform, amassing 43 million impressions and over 1.3 million app installations, setting national streaming records.
Search interest peaked in July with 24.9 million queries.
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