Liverpool feature prominently among the most streamed sporting events of 2024
As one of the biggest and most successful clubs in world football, Liverpool matches never fail to attract a global audience of millions, with the Merseyside giants having passionate supporters throughout the globe.
From Anfield to Aruba, Lime Street to Lima, Albert Dock to Addis Ababa, the Reds can count on the loyalty of fans in every part of the world, many of whom ensure that they’re awake for fixtures even when played in the middle of the night due to time zone differences.
It comes as no surprise that, whether playing with their club or their national teams, players from Arne Slot’s squad attract vast audiences.
Indeed, research from ExpressVPN found that many of the world’s most streamed sporting events of 2024 had a heavy Liverpool flavour, as we’re about to elaborate upon now.
Asian Cup
Reds midfielder Wataru Endo helped Japan to reach the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup, where they were eliminated by Iran.
In the UK and Ireland, the tournament was streamed in its entirety by TrillerTV (formerly FITE), with a 14% increase in cumulative TV ratings from the previous staging of the competition in 2019.
Africa Cup of Nations
Liverpool again lost Mo Salah to AFCON in the middle of their season, and his tournament ended early with a hamstring injury in Egypt’s match against Ghana in the group stage, which saw him miss the best part of two months (returning briefly for a 4-1 win over Brentford in February).
The 2024 edition drew 1.4 billion viewers globally, making it the seventh-most streamed sporting event of the year, and it had 2.1 billion digital engagements.
FA Cup
Liverpool’s FA Cup involvement in 2023/24 ended in agonising fashion as, despite dominating for much of their quarter-final against Manchester United, they lost 4-3 after extra time, with Amad Diallo scoring a 120th-minute winner. To make matters worse, the Red Devils went on to win the trophy two months later.
That clash at Old Trafford had a peak audience of 8.6 million viewers in the UK alone, the most for a fixture at that stage of the competition since 2018.
Euro 2024
Liverpool were unsurprisingly well-represented at European football’s flagship tournament in the summer, with 10 Reds players selected by their nations.
Trent Alexander-Arnold helped England to reach the final, with Joe Gomez also in the Three Lions squad, while the Anfield trio of Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch inspired Netherlands to a semi-final berth. France also made it that far, although Ibrahima Konate was an unused squad member for Les Bleus.
Diogo Jota’s Portugal made it to the quarter-finals, although Andy Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai were eliminated from the same group with Scotland and Hungary respectively. Vitezslav Jaros was in the Czechia squad which also departed early, but as third-choice goalkeeper he didn’t get on the pitch at Euro 2024.
The tournament was the most-streamed sporting event of 2024, with more than 5 billion global viewers (including 24.3 million in the UK alone for the final), while online searched peaked at 30.4 million during the finals.
Copa America
Held simultaneously with Euro 2024, South America’s biggest tournament also had a big audience and Liverpool representation, with Alexis Mac Allister helping Argentina to victory in the final over Luis Diaz and Colombia. Darwin Nunez’s Uruguay finished third, while Alisson Becker’s Brazil exited in the quarter-finals.
TV and streaming ratings were up significantly from the previous edition in 2021 in many countries, most notably Brazil (up 82%) and Colombia (up 30%) and USA (fivefold increase), while an estimated 59% of the Argentine population watched their nation’s route to glory.
Premier League
The English top flight is truly a global league, with supporters in every part of the world, and millions will have watched Liverpool soar to the summit of the division under Arne Slot this season.
On either side of the Atlantic, both Sky Sports and NBC Sports recorded significant increases in viewership from the 2023/24 campaign, with the Reds’ match against Chelsea on the openign weekend of that season becomign the most-streamed Premier League game of all time in the USA with an average viewership of 1.85 million.
Online search activity is also prevalent, peaking at 13.6 million in December 2023, and top-flight games continue to be streamed in vast numbers every single weekend.
Champions League
Liverpool returned to the Champions League this season, with the tournament being remodelled into a new format with a single 36-team league phase.
The 2023/24 edition was eighth in the ranking of the year’s most-streamed sporting events, with Real Madrid’s win over Borussia Dortmund in the final at Wembley attracting a global viewership of 450 million.
Conclusion
Liverpool’s status as one of the most popular clubs in world football is reflected by their heavy presence among the most-streamed sporting events on the globe, and their magnificent 2024/25 season so far should see the viewership and engagement numbers rise even further over the coming months.
Hopefully there’ll be trophies for the Reds to lift in 2025 to go along with the vast audiences that they consistently attract!
The post Liverpool feature prominently among the most streamed sporting events of 2024 appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.