More than 23 million people watched Germany’s opening match at the World Cup on Sunday on public broadcaster ARD.
Ratings firm AGF Videoforschung on Monday said an average of 23.427 million people watched the 7-1 victory over Curaçao on ARD’s Das Erste channel, earning a 70.2% market share.
The match in Houston was also broadcast by MagentaTV, Deutsche Telekom’s TV and streaming platform. The company does not publish viewing figures for its streaming service.
The audience for the opening match on ARD was far higher than at the last World Cup in Qatar, where the 2-1 defeat to Japan drew just just 9.23 million viewers for a 59.7% market share.
It was also higher than the 22.49 million viewers (69% share) who watched the first match at the home 2024 Euros, when Germany defeated Scotland 5-1.
However, the national team’s openers at previous World Cups were significantly higher, with 25.97 million tuning in to watch the 1-0 loss to Mexico in Russia in 2018 for an 81.6% market share, and 26.36 million viewing the 4-0 win over Portugal in Brazil in 2014, a tournament Germany went on to win.
Interest for the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada has been high so far in Germany, with an average of 10.038 million watching the opening match between Mexico and South Africa on Thursday for a market share of 46.5%.
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