Television coverage of the group stage of the 2014 Fifa World Cup broke viewing records in a number of markets across the world, according to world football's governing body.
Fifa said all eight groups set viewing records for at least one territory.
The tournament’s opening game between hosts Brazil and Croatia attracted the largest audience, with Brazilian media group Globio and commercial broadcaster recording a combined audience figure of 47.4 million.
US broadcaster Univision and pay-television broadcaster ESPN reported that the USA’s 2-2 draw with Portugal was the most-watched football match ever on US television with combined viewers of 24.7 million. This is higher than the viewing figures for any of the North American NBA basketball finals and is more than the average audience for the 2013 Major League Baseball World Series.
Japanese public-service broadcaster NHK reported that the Group C clash between Japan and Ivory Coast attracted the largest audience for a sports broadcast so far in 2014, with 34.1 million viewers.
German public-service broadcaster ZDF recorded its largest television audience in two years when 27.3 million watched Germany beat USA 1-0 on June 26.
French commercial broadcaster TF1 said the France v Switzerland game attracted 16.7 million viewers, the largest television audience since 2007.
Elsewhere, UK commercial broadcaster ITV reported that the England v Uruguay match drew the largest television audience in two years with 17.9 million viewers.
The Telecinco commercial channel of Spanish broadcaster Mediaset also said its coverage of Spain v Chile attracted its largest television audience for two years, with 13.2 million viewers.
In addition, Italy’s 1-0 defeat to Uruguay was watched by a combined audience of 19.3 million in Italy – the largest television audience in two years. This is according to combined viewing data from Italian state broadcaster RAI and pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia.
Fifa expects total viewing figures for the tournament to be in excess of the 3.2 billion that watched the 2010 World Cup.