During the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ finals, the highest recorded TV audience for a single game in one nation was 71.5 million viewers in China PR for the group game between Japan and Croatia.

China - despite failing to qualify - also accounted for the most overall viewers (3.98 billion), followed by Brazil, Vietnam and Germany, with Asia contributing 34.2 per cent. Europe's cumulative audience was 5.33 billion, with Germany and Italy accounting for 31.5 per cent of that total.

The Final attracted the biggest global audience with 607.9 million in-home viewers across 214 countries. There were over 73,000 hours of dedicated programming, a 76.4 per cent increase on 2002. It if had been shown non-stop on just one channel, so much coverage would have taken over eight years to broadcast.