World Cup Match Breaks Online Viewing Records… Or Does It?

speedmatters.com

Last week, ESPN claimed to host the largest ever online audience for a sporting event: the United States' World Cup game against Algeria. ESPN said 1.1 million people watched at least some of the USA's 1-0 win as it was streamed online.

According to ESPN: "the match averaged 328,000 viewers per minute in... live online coverage. When combined with the simultaneous England vs. Slovenia game, ESPN3.com hit its peak point of viewing... when 513,000 viewers were watching each minute." Adding to these incredible numbers, some 650,000 people watched the game on mobile devices, which ESPN says is also a record.

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Sports fans break records on Twitter

New York Times

Sports fans have spent the week furtively watching the World Cup during the workday and staying up late to watch the N.B.A. playoffs. They have also been logging on to Twitter.

Despite the serious technical problems that Twitter had during the week, which caused long periods of downtime, three World Cup goals broke the all-time record for the number of Twitter posts written per second, Twitter reported. And those records were quickly shattered Thursday night, after the Lakers won the final game of the N.B.A. playoffs.

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