Sunday in the middle of February is definitely a highlight in American sports. Super Bowl gathers hundreds of millions of viewers to excite who will be the best NFL team of the year. The actual number covers nearly a third of the whole nation but the match also interests a lot of sports fans outside the country.
The Super Bowl gathers nearly 40 million people outside the US which might actually sound pretty modest for the American point of view. The US might find the nfl odds and the Super Bowl as the biggest sporting event of the year but there are some other significant championships to beat.
World Cups, Olympics and soccer finals in Europe are extremely popular worldwide but American football is clearly following this group and the overseas viewers are growing. On the other hand the popularity is not as astonishing as Americans might think because in the US it is easy to overestimate the worldwide excitement of the most significant game in American football.
Soccer More Popular in Europe
Even though the Super Bowl attracts some of the sport lovers in Europe, it has not beaten the local football – soccer. Soccer is perceived as the proper kind of football in Europe and Latin America and it is still the most popular sports when it comes to viewers and fans.
For instance, the FIFA World Cup Final is played every four years and it is the culmination of the many tournaments where more than 30 nations play against each other. It is certainly the biggest game in the world and the final reaches over a billion people across the world.
The latest World Cup final in 2018 was played between France and Croatia and the game reached more than 500 million viewers on average. When the final reached its 90 minutes, it was watched by more than one billion people.
If we compare this to the 2021 Super Bowl, we can see that the average amount of TV viewers was more than 91 million in the United States and around 30-50 outside US. These are however amazing figures when we remember that there are only American teams playing in the Super Bowl and it is about American football.
Big Countries in the Loop
The NFL is eager to gain more popularity outside the US. The American football league has been targeting some of the biggest potential markets which can enable massive more viewers around the sport. These countries are Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and China. Germany and Brazil are also interesting target countires.
The league has worked hard on investing in youth football programs internationally and have arranged some season games in London, Toronto and Mexico City. These are huge cities which can bring a lot of exciting growth opportunities. The season games are a great idea but the biggest hype is still about the highlight of the league: Super Bowl.
The league gets thanks for its creativity. They have been working with corporate sponsors which makes them capable to host viewing parties in movie theatres in Mexico. The Chinese audience can enjoy the game on the following Monday morning when there is a broadcast live at Western hotels serving buffets.
Sense of Community Among the International Fans
The goal is to create a feeling of community around the NFL league and they do their best to achieve it. The goal is still there even though it might be challenging when considering the fact that the games are pretty much played only domestically.
Also, sharing the knowledge of the rules can be challenging to some extent. International fans can try hard to figure out what is going on in the game because American football isn’t as intuitive. This needs to be considered especially when the international audience has limited opportunities to follow the games.
Hard work will hopefully pay off and in the future we can see those yearly Monday mornings in the European offices where they talk about the exciting final of the previous night. The Super Bowl halftime show is also a plus since it is always hosted by a well known artist. THe halftime show is for sure interesting even for those people who don’t necessarily watch the actual game. ■ #hydnews #khabarlive
