U.S.-Germany World Cup match brings record number of viewers to the WatchESPN app

While the U.S. World Cup team was shut out by Germany 1-0 on Thursday, soccer in the states might have been a big winner. 1.7 million viewers watched the game and the Portugal vs. Ghana contest from the WatchESPN app. That figure counts only those who were watching either game from their mobile device, or both at once on multiple screens. The ESPN feed had some technical difficulties in the first half, which was caused by the record number of people trying to view the game.

The 1.7 million viewers who watched the two games, topped the 1.1 million who viewed the third quarter of this year's Super Bowl that was streamed over Fox. Still, it is not an apples to apples comparison. The Super Bowl stream was not available for mobile devices. In addition, with today's game being held in the afternoon in the states, many viewers were not home to watch it, and had to rely on their phone or tablet to view the action.

Besides the 1.7 million streams that covered those watching the two games on the ESPN app, Univision Digital said that it had 750,000 concurrent streams during the U.S.-Germany game. Unlike ESPN, Univision didn't have any problems with its streaming service. 

Despite the loss, the U.S. team advances to the round of 16, along with Germany, keeping the World Cup dream alive in the states. That could lead to an even larger number of Americans watching the U.S. team's next game on the WatchESPN app.


source: @KristieESPNPR via TechCrunch