Qatar 2022 becomes a huge hit on social media: Hundreds of millions experience greatness at the FIFA World Cup

The magic of the 2022 FIFA World Cup can surely harness every ounce of emotion left on the pitch by the players and deliver it to the world, as this has surely been the most interconnected edition of the world football flagship competition, delivering its magic, excitement and unpredictability through a plethora of media channels, from the traditional TV, which has delivered excellent ratings throughout the whole Globe, to the social media channels, where Qatar 2022 has provided excellent numbers on various platforms.

To note just a small sample, Richarlison’s scissor-kick goal from the match against Serbia, in the early days of Qatar 2022, which saw Brazil take a 2-0 win against the European side, created a huge buzz on social media and brought the Brazil forward, signed by Tottenham for a fee estimated to be around £60 million, nearly four million followers on Instagram in the space of a single day.

Until the quarter-finals, Richarlison’s Instagram account duly added three more million followers, as it has risen to 16.2 million followers, nearly doubling its presence in the online space, with Brazil’s excellent games and the striker’s goals at Qatar 2022 convincing people to follow him.

During the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo has also become the first sportsperson to hit the 500 million followers milestone on Instagram, as the football craze has been getting more and more people interested in football and particularly in the Qatar 2022 tournament.

It was not only the players getting larger attention and following, as all the official accounts of the competition generating huge numbers from even before the first ball was ever kicked at Qatar 2022, on 20 November, when the host national conceded a 2-0 loss against Ecuador.

There have definitely been viral moments at the FIFA World Cup – Qatar 2022, from Richarlison’s otherworldly scissor kick goal against Serbia, to the opening ceremony, where renowned star Jung Kook from BTS performed or Japan cleaning the locker room after the win against Germany, as well as their fans leaving the arena spotless after a game.

Surely, Stephanie Frappart’s appointment as the first female referee in history at the FIFA World Cup, for the match between Germany and Costa Rica, has also drawn a lot of plaudits and reactions on social media.

All these little dots have connected and created a huge response for Qatar 2022, with FIFA.com, the official website of the competition, registering 156 million users on the website and the apps, over 22 million viewers per day, which is a 22% uplift from the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

FIFA+, the website and app which delivers news, highlights and stats for the FIFA World Cup games has seen a surge of over 4 million registrations, adding to the 10 million users that have set up an account between April 2022 and November 2022, in the anticipation of Qatar 2022.

Over 15 million people have followed the FIFA accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and Tik Tok, as the FIFA account on Youtube is the largest football account in the world, with 16 million subscribers. In total, over 135 million follow the official accounts of the FIFA World Cup closely, generating a huge engagement.

Last, but not least, the FIFA+ Stadium Experience App has been a huge hit, driving a huge engagement on social media. Fans entering a World Cup stadium during on Match Day and who have enabled location services with the FIFA+ app, will see an exclusive Stadium Experience section which will take them straight into the action.

Users can point their phone’s camera to the pitch and a pop-up overlay enables them to tap on a player to see every point of data available, such as their movement speed, individual heatmap, shots on target and the number of fouls made by the player during the match.

A video describing the FIFA+ Stadium Experience App has been seen 150 million times on Tik Tok, underlining the huge potential of the app for younger users, who like to try new things.

Moreover, the Fantasy game in the FIFA World Cup has also been a huge hit at Qatar 2022, with over 2 million people trying it and actively playing it, creating a team of their liking, which accumulates points according to the performance of the players on the pitch.