With the end of the group stage, the best 16 teams are all geared up to raise their game in what is being called the most open World Cup in the history of the tournament. Meanwhile, FIFA is witnessing some great performances on a different pitch too. The FIFA digital platforms are experiencing record-breaking interest from fans, preliminary data revealed by FIFA confirms.
FIFA has been expanding its digital and social media footprint to help more football fans around the world connect and engage with the 2018 FIFA World Cup being played in Russia. Data released by the football body shows FIFA.com and the FIFA apps have received over 130 million visitors since the start of the tournament. The total followers for FIFA’s social media platforms have crossed the 120-million mark.
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FIFA says fans from the host nation Russia, which is ranked fourth overall, are spending an average of around 40 minutes on its digital digital platforms.
Since the beginning of the tournament, over 10 million new fans have joined the FIFA digital platforms — the official FIFA World Cup accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, VKontakte and Weibo. FIFA’s official VKontakte page recently gained its millionth follower, while the FIFA App is topping the charts in 128 countries.
As many as 32 dedicated team reporters are covering the tournament in-depth, giving ball-by-ball account. They are followed across 16 languages on Twitter and have engaged 200,000 fans in Facebook groups, with Argentina and Brazil leading the pack.
FIFA gives credit to its digital success to a number of steps taken that it says helped enhance accessibility to match content. The match report service in International Sign Language is especially a big draw. FIFA has been publishing publish short summaries of the matches in sign language. It will have all 64 World Cup match reports in sign language. The service is especially for the hearing impaired fans.