Can the Rugby World Cup at home excite the French more than the Football World Cup in Qatar? Although it is obviously too early to arrive at such an observation, the audience success of the opening match on Friday between the XV of France and New Zealand (27-13) materializes in one observation: there was more people on TF1 for this shock than for the debut of the Blues of football in Qatar last November.
15.408 million people watched the French victory against the All Blacks at the Stade de France on TF1, according to Médiamétrie data published this Saturday morning. However, the first match of the 2022 Football World Cup for Kylian Mbappé’s gang against Australia (4-1) brought together 12.5 million viewers.
TF1, which shares the broadcast of the world championship with France Télévisions and M6, thus collected an audience share of 64.5% during this meeting. Compared to 2019, this World Cup is off to a spectacular start for the first channel, light years away from this disappointing audience of 4.3 million spectators for the France-Argentina match in Japan, certainly broadcast at a much less favorable schedule, in the morning, due to the time difference. There is no doubt that we will still be far from the symbolic mark of 15 million in the Blues’ next group matches against Uruguay, Namibia, and even Italy.