beIN MEDIA GROUP (“beIN”), the global sports and entertainment broadcaster, and its flagship sports channel beIN SPORTS, revealed that it has achieved staggering viewership figures of over 450 million cumulative views during the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021™ that was held from 30 November to 18 December 2021.
In an innovative move to make such a regionally important tournament accessible to adoring fans, beIN made the Arab Cup matches available Free-to-Air on its channels beIN SPORTS 1 and beIN SPORTS 2, in 24 countries across the MENA region, and on YouTube in 33 countries.
According to research statistics, the tournament saw an overall cumulative total of over 387 million views on linear channels, while the final match between Algeria vs. Tunisia recorded the highest audience of 40 million views. The final was followed by the Tunisia vs. Egypt semi-final match with 37 million viewers, and the Qatar vs. Algeria match with 32 million viewers. The six matches of the Egyptian national team were among the top 10 most watched matches on beIN SPORTS 1 and beIN SPORTS 2.
The ranking of the teams with the highest average viewers per match is as follows: Algeria (23.7 million); Egypt (22.2 million); Tunisia (17.7 million); Morocco (14.2 million); and Qatar (13.4 million). Most incredibly, 66% of Tunisia’s population, 57% of Algeria’s population and 35% of Qatar’s population watched the final.
The number of viewers on beIN SPORTS 1 and beIN SPORTS 2 on YouTube hit record levels, with a total number of 79 million cumulative views for live streams. The final match between Algeria and Tunisia set a record in Europe, Middle East, and Africa, with 2.3 million concurrent viewers. beIN digitally broadcasted the final in the Middle East and North Africa region in addition to France, Turkey, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Timor Leste, Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines.
“We are pleased that our exceptional coverage of the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021™ has reached outstanding viewership in MENA. This achievement is also a testament to our excellent programming and reflects the popularity of linear TV in MENA. We look forward to continuing to deliver exciting sports tournaments to our viewers and subscribers this year, starting from TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2021 and concluding with the highly-awaited FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.
The Arab Cup capped an incredible year for beIN SPORTS, with over 1 billion cumulative views on beIN SPORTS during the EUROS. It also served as a prime opportunity to test our readiness for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, in which two-thirds of the world’s population will be able to watch the games during prime time.”
Mohammed Al-Bader, Managing Director of beIN Channels, MENA
Overall, the quarterfinals, semi-finals, third place play-off and the final match had a higher viewership than the group stage matches. The last eight matches in the tournament recorded a total of 204 million cumulative views, while the 24 group stage matches saw 183 million cumulative views.
