Showmax has released data on how football fans watched the FIFA World Cup on their Showmax Pro platform between November and December 2022.

In the initial stages of the event, subscribers were more likely to watch the match highlights that were available on demand, but as the tournament neared its conclusion, streaming live increased.

Showmax says the final – between Argentina and France – saw the highest number of concurrent streams of a live event in Showmax Pro’s history, a more than 20% increase in viewership. The number of new subscribers to Showmax Pro increased steadily across the month of December peaking on 18 December 2022, the day of the final.

“We’re incredibly proud that Showmax successfully streamed the entire World Cup without a hitch and delivered 4K to our subscribers for the first time across the continent. We look forward to bringing even more of the world’s best sport to our customers in 2023, starting with the Premier League, Serie A and LaLiga, and the DStv Premiership,” says Barry Dubovsky, COO for Connected Video at MultiChoice.

Top watched matches of the World Cup:

Based on the total number of users, these were the most-streamed matches of the tournament.

Argentina vs France
France vs Morocco
Croatia vs Brazil

Africa’s top 10 favourite teams:

Based on the total number of match views during the group phase across all Showmax Pro markets in sub-Saharan Africa, these were the most popular teams:

France
Morocco
Argentina
Brazil
Portugal
Netherlands
England
United States
Ecuador
Ghana

Penalties drove subscriber and viewership spikes

An interesting trend was seeing the impact of penalties on the number of new subscribers signing up for Showmax Pro, as well as on viewership. In every match that went to penalties, there were significant spikes as fans signed up and started live streaming.

Now that the tournament has come to an end, 2023 brings a wealth of international football to watch, including Premier League action.