Largest television sports audiences

Armchair supporters

Is the Super Bowl the most popular sports event in the world?

Feb 9th 2010 | From The Economist online

THIS year's Super Bowl set a record for the largest ever American television audience, with 106.5m football fans tuning in to see the New Orleans Saints triumph over the Indianapolis Colts. Globally around 121m viewers are estimated to have watched the game, 15m more than the year before, according to Futures Sport + Entertainment, a media consultancy that tracks audience data in 55 countries. In 2009, according to their data, only the Champions League football final in Europe attracted a larger audience. Other events (and sports) are much less popular, though some, such as Twenty20 cricket, probably draw far more viewers than indicated, partly because of the difficulty in getting accurate data from poorer countries.