World Cup streaming: Online live streams of games breaks Super Bowl record

More football fans watch matches over the internet than ever before

The World Cup is underway and a lot of records are on the line – both on an off the pitch.

With live streams of World Cup matches provided by most traditional broadcasters around the world, many football fans are choosing to watch games online rather than on television.

Despite still being in the group stages of the tournament, online streaming figures for the World Cup are already exceeding the Super Bowl by 40 per cent.

(Cybersecurity experts have warned that some streaming services could pose a danger to football fans.)

The data was collected by Conviva, a streaming TV measurement provider that works with many of the World Cup streaming publishers, including Fox Telemundo, NBC, Hulu and Sky.

"In 2010, Conviva saw a high of 1.5 million peak concurrent global viewers for the World Cup. Then in 2014, they saw more than 2-times these views with 3.2 million peak concurrent viewers," a spokesperson for Conviva told The Independent.

"Conviva has already seen a peak of 7.7 million peak concurrent viewers for 2018’s World Cup. For reference, Conviva’s previous live event peak occurred during this year’s Super Bowl with 5.5 million peak concurrent viewers."

The 7.7 million peak viewership occurred during the Argentina versus Iceland match, which starred Lionel Messi and ended in a 1-1 draw.

Figures released by the BBC on Tuesday, 19 June, also revealed that England's World Cup win over Tunisia had 3 million viewers through its iPlayer streaming platform – making it the highest-ever live audience for an online BBC programme.

All of the World Cup's 64 matches will be shown on either ITV or BBC, both of which will also stream them online.

This year, the BBC will stream in 4K for the first time – though only to a select group of viewers.