Kuala Lumpur, March 11 (QNA) - The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) revealed that the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 garnered the highest number of engagements by fans in its history, reaching a record number of 7.9 billion impressions across all its digital platforms.
According to a statement by the AFC, the 18th edition exceeded the previous record of 890 million impressions that was set during the 2019 tournament in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by almost nine times, further underlining the remarkable support showcased by Asia's passionate football audience.
Engaging video content including exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and highlights resulted in 1.1 billion video views throughout the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023, marking a 1,211 percent increase from the 2019 edition.
The AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 became the first AFC competition to reach the one billion mark just 10 days into the tournament. Not only was the event the most multilingual in continental football history, the AFC's digital platforms also saw an overall increase of 11.6 million new fans as followers grew by 398 percent across all platforms.
The overall number of 7.9 billion is a result of a comprehensive digital strategy by the AFC developed to serve the different regions across the diverse continent by offering its content in 13 different languages across 12 platforms for the first time in AFC Asian Cup history, the Confederation stated.
More than 3.5 billion digital conversations were sparked with the AFC's YouTube channel, surpassing 1.53 billion impressions. The AFC Asian Cup's Instagram witnessed staggering impressions of 1.26 billion and 431 million video views.
The AFC Asian Cup's Facebook drew 602 million impressions. Supporters also flocked to Chinese platforms, Weibo and Douyin, which received a combined total of 364 million impressions. Meanwhile, the Confederation's X platform received impressions of 247 million.
The AFC LIVE App, AFC's first-ever developed app which was launched prior to the start of the tournament, delivered engaging initiatives including the Fantasy Football and Match Predictor, receiving over 120,000 downloads.
The statement underlined that fans of Asian football can continue to enjoy the exciting and in-depth digital coverage of the upcoming AFC Asian Qualifiers, the AFC Futsal Asian Cup Thailand 2024, the AFC U-23 Asian Cup Qatar 2024, the AFC U17 Women's Asian Cup Indonesia 2024 as well as its revamped three-tier club competitions and the breakthrough AFC Women's Champions League to commence from the second half of 2024.
General Secretary of the AFC Datuk Seri Windsor John, said: "Asian football fans are undoubtedly amongst the most vibrant and passionate anywhere in the world and this landmark achievement only serves to reinforce that reputation. Our fans are the heartbeat of the game." "As part of the AFC's vision to reaffirm football as the Continent's number one sport, we are resolute in our commitment to constantly enhance the ways in which to serve and engage them and nowhere is that more evident than in the various innovative offerings on our digital channels and platforms, particularly during the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023", he added.
General Secretary of the AFC described the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 as the best edition ever in history, as it has set new records for spectatorship and TV viewership which further expands the fanbase as another major celebration will be held in 2027.
The AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 witnessed over one million link clicks generated from a total of 15,384 posts across Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Snapchat, Telegram, Threads, YouTube, Weibo, Douyin, Donqiudi and Toutiao. (QNA)