The bar chart below illustrates the international television audience reach for selection of major sport events being broadcasted.
Overall, the Olympics and FIFA World Cup attracted the largest audience while the Winter Olympics and UEFA European Championship are slightly less popular than the former.
Looking at the figures in more detail, the London 2012 Olympics attracted the highest audience with over 3.6 billion views. Not far behind is the Beijing 2008 Olympics accounting for 3.5 billion people. Similarly, the FIFA World Cup at South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014 drew exactly 3.2 billion views while the Rio 2016 Olympics reached the same figure. The Germany World Cup was slightly lower at around 3 billion, but still among the most popular events overall.
In contrast, the Winter Olympics attracted smaller numbers of audiences. The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics reached 2.1 billion views, while the games held at Vancouver 2010 had only 1.8 billion views respectfully. The UEFA European Championship performed slightly better than the former attracting 2.0 billion viewers, but fell short in comparison to the Winter Olympics.
