The 2022 World Cup final, won on Sunday, December 18 with penalties by Argentina against France and broadcast from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., was watched by 24.08 million people on TF1, or 80.1% of audience share, according to figures from Médiamétrie published the next day and quoted by the channel.
This is a record for French television because it is the "best audience of all channels and all programs combined," indicated TF1, which recorded a peak of 29.4 million viewers during the penalty shootout and 3 million people live on the MYTF1 platform.
This figure should be put into perspective since Médiamétrie has been measuring the “out-of-home” audience since 2020, which was not the case for the previous Football World Cups. According to the institute, the "out-of-home" represented, Sunday, December 18, 6 million viewers, or 24% of the total audience for the final. The previous record dates back to the semi-final of the 2006 Portugal/France World Cup, with 22.2 million viewers on TF1.
On targets, this 2022 final brought together 86.7% of people aged 25-49, 87.9% of people aged 25-49, 85.9% of people aged 50 years and older and 90.5 % of audience share among 15-34 year olds.
In total, 54.6 million people followed the competition (8.7 million viewers on average) on TF1, which held exclusive rights for free-to-air broadcast (28 matches including those of the French team) while beIN Sports had the entire event on pay-TV. The channel had one audience performance after another during this World Cup from November 20 to December 18, despite calls for a boycott. This is a "record cover." The eight matches of the French team attracted an average of 16.2 million viewers (66% of audience share).
The channel was also pleased with the performance of the programs Le Mag de la Coupe du monde (3.1 million viewers on average) and Téléfoot (1.4 million viewers on average).