FIFA Highlights & Trends: Charting on YouTube

Top Insights into 2018 FIFA Football Videos On YouTube [Infographic]

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

The 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia is over for another four years and the grand finale of this tournament was really outstanding, and France won the World Cup for the second time after overcoming Croatia 4-2 in a thrilling final in Moscow. While the entire world is anxiously about the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the football videos on YouTube are booming. In fact, the football-related searches on this platform have been soaring in the months leading up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, despite the fact that some of the most popular football clubs in the world are still ignoring how powerful YouTube has become.

We have produced the infographic below which clearly shows how popular football videos are on YouTube, so let’s have a look at some of the mind-blowing facts we’ve discovered.

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Football Content Has Never Been More Popular on YouTube

The football gods, like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi or Neymar Jr are making enormous amounts of money, in addition to having an iconic status in the mass media. Such state of affairs explains why YouTube videos with these superstars saw an 80% increase in watch time over the course of the last year.

Interestingly, the highest amount of football-related searches on the world’s largest video sharing platform are coming from the South American and European countries. For example, France’s young star Kylian Mbappé is a popular search in his home country, while videos of Messi, Ronaldo or Neymar are popular searches around the globe.

The number of YouTube users who are watching the game highlights has doubled over the course of the last two years, while the number of match recap viewers has increased 9 times since the last World Cup in 2014. The live streaming content related to football is also gaining momentum, although it still isn’t nearly as popular as the Trick Shot videos or Drills and Skills videos that saw a 6x increase in watch time in the last four years.

Furthermore, some of the most viewed videos on YouTube are football related, since Shakira’s Waka Waka, the official 2010 World Cup song currently has 1.9 billion views. These statistics show how big the football audience on YouTube really is, and that brands and independent entrepreneurs have much to gain by including football related content on their YouTube channels.

Music videos related to previous World Cups have attracted 12% of women more than the videos that show footage of the Euro Cup, which clearly demonstrates that large audiences can be reached if the video doesn’t include the actual gameplay.

As a matter of fact, football audiences are also largely attracted to gaming content, entertainment, and music videos since as much as 18% of the football audience frequently watches entertainment videos.

Are Sports the Next Big Thing On YouTube?

At the moment, sports videos are growing faster than any other genre of videos you can find on YouTube, including entertainment or music, while the branded partnerships in this niche are growing 111% faster than all of the sports videos combined. The window of opportunity is clear for all brands that support sports activities.

Furthermore, brand ads for corporate giants such as Nike, Gatorade or Addidas attracted millions of views, which means that the leading brands in the world of sports have recognized YouTube as a marketplace they can no longer ignore. Brands that want to gain more recognition on the international market can seize this opportunity to team up with influencers on YouTube to present and broaden the reach of their products.

Besides soccer that is currently dominating the largest video sharing platform in the world, basketball, extreme sports and winter sports also provide access to huge audiences and show promising signs that they can help brands and influencers generate more revenue. Popular YouTubers should try to include more sports-related videos on their channels because it might help them attract new followers and secure a foothold in a rapidly growing market.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

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