The World Cup final between Argentina and Spain did more than just break hearts on the pitch – it reset the standard for Israeli sports viewership.
Even with a 10 p.m. kickoff, the Sunday match secured an extraordinary 40.6% rating for Kan 11, drawing 1,576,000 viewers.
This phenomenal turnout easily surpassed the most recent Eurovision final featuring Noam Bettan, which garnered a 32.7% rating and averaged 1.042 million viewers throughout the evening.
This impressive turnout makes the recent showdown the most-watched World Cup final in Israel in nearly three decades.
Over the last 28 years, the only match to surpass this figure was the 1998 final between France and Brazil, which commanded a 43.8% viewership share.
A massive difference from previous figures
From a historical perspective, these figures represent a massive leap forward.
The dramatic back-and-forth 2022 final between Argentina and France pulled in 35.5%, while the 2018 tournament final between France and Croatia recorded 37.2%.
Even the high-stakes 2014 final between Germany and Argentina (40%) and the 2010 clash between Spain and the Netherlands (37.1%) were left in the dust by Sunday’s historic broadcast.