Before the official start of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia on June 14, 2018, football fans are turning to YouTube to research and gear up for the much-awaited tournament. The global interest for the FIFA World Cup continues to grow, with search volume across both Google and YouTube besting that of the Olympics, as well as other major sporting events.
To better understand what football fans are watching on YouTube, we researched which national teams, players, and football-related videos were trending on the video-sharing site over the past year. When it comes to watch-time in 2017, the top five most popular national teams were Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Portugal, and Mexico. Check out the most popular 2018 FIFA World Cup teams in every country:
Meanwhile, online videos of superstar football players all had an 80% increase in watch time in 2017.
When it comes to football-related content on YouTube, match recaps, game highlights, and trick shots proved popular. Over the past two years, the amount of time people spent watching match recaps on YouTube has more than doubled, and since the last FIFA World Cup, watch time for soccer game highlights has grown by nine times, while watch time for soccer-related trick shots has gone up by 50%
Here are some of the most popular soccer tutorial videos on the platform:
Miss a game? Can’t get enough of the action? On YouTube globally, you can catch up on your favorite 2018 FIFA World Cup moments with select video highlights from official FIFA broadcasters in more than 80 countries around the world, including from Fox and Telemundo in the U.S., the BBC in the U.K., ARD Sportschau in Germany, NHK in Japan, Kwese in Nigeria and across Africa, Televisa in Mexico, Latina Televisión in Peru, and more.
The excitement doesn’t end on the pitch. There are hundreds of YouTube channels that will take you beyond the games for the complete 2018 FIFA World Cup experience, with live shows, training footage, interviews, banter and match analysis. The official FIFA channel will share content from around the tournament and keep users up-to-date with the latest news.
A number of channels will have regular original and exclusive content including the FA with daily content from the English national football team, Germany’s DFB Die Mannschaft will report from the training camp as well as the team’s base camp, and FC Barcelona will even host interviews with Barça World Cup legends. Join us in the countdown to the official kickoff.