The 2026 Fifa World Cup will be remembered as the tournament that rewrote the record books – and not only on the pitch.
As the first 48-team finals produced the most goals ever scored at a World Cup (308), a record nine African teams in the knockout rounds, and a record eight Arab nations participating, fans across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) set records of their own.
beIN SPORTS, the region’s leading sports broadcaster, recorded a cumulative viewership of 6.2 billion across the 39-day tournament, according to independent audience measurement by Ipsos.
Every historic moment on the pitch was matched by one on the screen. When Ferran Torres struck in extra time to crown Spain world champions at the New York New Jersey Stadium, 245.4 million were watching across the region, representing 68.6% of MENA’s total adult population.
Similarly, when Egypt took 2022 champions Argentina to the brink in the Round of 16, 192.6 million watched – a record for a match featuring an Arab team.
And when the tournament reached its final week, the region simply could not look away: 171.3 million for Argentina’s late semifinal comeback against England; 168.8 million for Spain’s statement victory over France; and 162 million for a third-place play-off in which England beat France 6-4 in a thriller that saw eventual Golden Boot winner Kylian Mbappé become the Fifa World Cup’s all-time leading scorer with 22 goals across three tournaments.
In all, 22 matches attracted more than 100 million cumulative viewers on beIN SPORTS, despite many of them kicking off at 01:00, 04:00 and 06:00 MECCA, proving, night after night, that distance and time zones are no barrier to the region’s passion.
From Portugal’s last-16 meeting with eventual champions Spain (152.1 million) to Brazil’s clash with Norway (138.3 million), the biggest World Cup ever staged produced the biggest audiences beIN has ever recorded.
It was, above all, a historic tournament for Arab football. As beIN revealed last month, the region’s record eight representatives drew a cumulative 2.1 billion viewers across their 29 matches, as Egypt reached the Round of 16 for the first time and Morocco marched to a second successive quarter-final in front of 151.6 million viewers.
Mohammed Al Bader, Managing Director of beIN Channels – MENA, said: “This was a Fifa World Cup of unprecedented records – the most goals, most teams, and now, the biggest broadcast audience in beIN’s history. Reaching 6.2 billion cumulative viewers across 39 days tells a powerful story about what football means to this region. We are honoured to have been the exclusive home of every moment of it, and prouder still that when Arab teams made history on the pitch, the entire region experienced it together on beIN.”
Source: Khaleej Times