Football Fans Head Online For World Cup Action

Large numbers of football fans are heading online to watch World Cup games and keep up to date with the latest news on the tournament, according to research from Hitwise.

World Cup websites have seen “huge” increases in traffic since the tournament began and according to Hitwise, FIFA’s official World Cup website, fifaworldcup.yahoo.com, has seen its market share increase by 612% over the last few weeks. The average time spent on the site has also increased, rising from just over 5 minutes in March to more than 8 minutes at the beginning of June.

The figures show that the official FIFA website is the most popular World Cup destination for internet users. However, the popularity of other World Cup sites has also increased and Hitwise’s Soccer subcategory now claims over 42% of traffic within the Sports parent category, well ahead of its closest rivals, horseracing with 4% of traffic and Cricket with 3%.

The FIFA World Cup website is leading the Sports category with a consistent 12.3% share of the sector’s total traffic.

Recent research from Nieslen/NetRatings also highlights the popularity of the FIFA’s World Cup site, showing that a peak of over 255,3000 people accessed the site from home on 5 June (see Official World Cup Website Sees Surge In Traffic).

Hitwise: 020 7483 9257 www.hitwise.co.uk AOL: 01268 530919 www.aol.co.uk

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