Sport: Worldwide Viewers on TV - Top Ten Events

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http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=574061

In recent times:

1. 2002 FIFA World Cup Final (1.3 billion viewers)
2. Euro 2004 Soccer Final (153 million viewers)
3. 2004 Olympic Games: opening ceremony (127 million viewers)
4. 2004 Olympic Games: closing ceremony (96 million viewers)
5. 2004 Super Bowl (95 million viewers)
6. 2004 Olympic Games: men's 100m metres (87 million viewers)
7. 2003 Champions League (67 million viewers)
8. 2004 Olympic Games: men's 200m freestyle swimming (66 million viewers)
9. 2004 Formula One: Monaco Grand Prix (59 million viewers)
10. 2004 Basketball: NBA finals (25 million viewers)

No surprises with number 1, however I must admit to being pretty surprised over the olympics opening and closing ceremony. Especially as it's not even a sporting event.
SuperBowl sounds about right, though I've seen it quoted as high as 130 million.
Champions League but no FA Cup? The 1988 FA Cup final had 250k viewers worldwide, but the problem is that in recent times, the games have been relatively poor at the final stage. eg Millwall
I also find the Men's 200m freestyle quite interesting. I can only assume most of these viewers were in Australia, where swimming is pretty big?

Other surprises:

No rugby world cup final.
No baseball.
No test cricket (I'm thinking of audiences in Pakistan, India, UK and Australia primarily).


I'm pretty sure this data goes up to the end of 2004 but no further.

"For instance, the estimated audience for the soccer World Cup is more
than 2 billion viewers worldwide for the single-day championship
match. Cricket's World Cup has an estimated 2 billion viewers
worldwide, but receives scant attention in the United States. The
Rugby World Cup claimed 2.5 billion viewers for its 1995 broadcast
from South Africa..."

I assume that the cricket and rugby world cups don't give data for single events, but only for the whole thing.

Totally random thread I know, but I'm bored.