Fifa World Cup 2022 final: 32 million watched the match on JioCinema

Fifa World Cup 2022: Across Sports18 and Jio Cinema, the total watch time of the tournament was 40 billion minutes

With 32 million viewers on the day of the final match between Argentina and France, Fifa World Cup 2022 became the first marquee sports event to have a higher digital viewership than TV in India. The viewers could watch the tournament on the JioCinema app and on the Sports18 TV channel.  

"A monumental 32 million viewers tuned in to JioCinema on the final day that delivered arguably the most extraordinary FIFA World Cup Final as Argentina picked the FIFA World Cup Trophy for the first time since 1986," the company said. 

"Across Sports18 and Jio Cinema, the total watch time of the tournament was 40 billion minutes." 

"We promised to give consumers easy access to the world-class presentation of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and on the back of that, the tournament became the most-watched global sports event on digital where India has not participated," said Viacom18 Sports CEO Anil Jayaraj.

"This demonstrates the power of digital and the preference viewers and fans have shown to consume their favourite events, which will now see Paris Saint-Germain teammates and FIFA World Cup Golden Boot winner Kylian Mbappe and FIFA World Cup Golden Ball winner Lionel Messi join forces in the Ligue1," Jayaraj added. 

Lionel Messi-led Argentina lifted the World Cup after 36 years after defeating the defending champions France at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar. Kylian Mbappe scored a hat-trick but could not bring victory to his team which went down fighting in the penalties. 

Earlier on Monday, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that Google Search logged its highest-ever traffic in 25 years during the FIFA World Cup final.

"Search recorded its highest ever traffic in 25 years during the final of #FIFAWorldCup, it was like the entire world was searching about one thing," he tweeted.