MUMBAI: The 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia has broken viewership barriers with over 250 million viewers tuning in to the tournament in India. Telecast on Sony Ten 2, Sony Ten 3 and Sony ESPN channels and live streamed on SonyLIV app and website, it garnered over 250 million viewers across 64 matches played until the end of the tournament.

According to the broadcaster's report, repeats, surround programming, highlights and wrap around shows of FIFA World Cup 2018 have reached out to 254 million viewers this year.

The 64 live matches of the FIFA WC 2018 have been watched by 110.5 million viewers across India on the Sony Pictures Networks. The top markets for the live matches were West Bengal with 22.2 million viwers, Kerala with 17.8 million, Maharashtra and Goa with 12.8 million and lastly Assam/North East and Sikkim with 11.4 million.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup final match was watched by 51.2 million viewers, one of the highest for any FIFA World Cup match till date. Coming to the local language feeds which include Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali,Tamil and Telugu, they have reached out to 70.7 million viewers which is nearly 66 per cent of the overall tournament reach.

The regional commentary also received viewership of 9.7 million in Kerala while West Bengal reached out to 10.7 million. There were 40.7 million viewers across India for regional commentary.  

The 2018 FIFA World Cup also received 47 per fent of viewership from females, the highest till date.