Sports
World Cup 2022 In Numbers: $220bn In Cost, A Billion Viewers & More
Image Credits: @Argentina
This year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar was historic for many good and bad reasons. From Lionel Messi finally lifting the trophy to the accusation of white-washing Qatar’s image, there will be many talking points sociologists will debate over in the upcoming years. Ahead of that though, we’ve decided to take a look at the number just to gauge what rippling effect the biggest sporting event in the world has had in the last month.
Image Credit: The Guardian
Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently confirmed that the site’s “search” feature recorded the most traffic in 25 years during the final between France and Argentina.
Image Credit: Flashscore
Similarly, Flashscore, an industry leader in terms of real-time updates of sports, claims around 116 million users visited its website in the last month. The busiest month in its 15-year history.
Image Credit: Instagram
One of the main, if not the main attraction of the tournament was Lionel Messi’s push towards securing his country with ultimate glory. With the Argentine finally lifting the trophy yesterday, Messi’s Instagram post became the fastest to reach 10M likes in just 39 minutes!
Image Credit: FIFA
Back in 2018, over 3.575 billion people tuned in as France beat Croatia in the World Cup final. While we don’t have the numbers yet, the figure is expected to far exceed expectations.
Image Credit: The Guardian
As far as the whole cost of it is concerned, an early Forbes report suggests that the hosting nation Qatar spent around $220 billion on the 2022 World Cup, in terms of infrastructure development and organisation!
Image Credit: @Argentina
Coming to how much revenue was earned, an Al Jazeera report estimates that FIFA raked in $7.5 bn through sponsorships and TV deals this winter. This is $1bn than what it generated during the 2018 World Cup in Russia.