The FIFA World Cup, which kicks off in Moscow on Thursday, is one of the biggest sporting spectacles in the world. Every four years, football fans from all over the world look forward to an action-packed month of competition, culminating in the World Cup final, arguably the biggest game in the world. During the Super Bowlthe biggest game from an American perspective, is watched by more than a hundred million people in the US and perhaps another 100 around the world, the 2014 World Cup final between Argentina and Germany had an average audience of more than 560 million.
We have therefore established that the FIFA World Cup is a huge event, but is it really the biggest sporting event ever in terms of TV coverage? The answer is a resounding no. According to the IOC, the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games reached 3.6 and 3.5 billion people in their households respectively, surpassing the last two World Championships, which each attracted 3.2 billion viewers worldwide.
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