That would mean around 1 in 4 households tuned in.

Is that believable?

2.13 mill is actually quite disappointing.

3.4m Australians tuned into SBS last night to watch the Socceroos play France with a peak audience of 2.7m and an average of 2.1m for the whole game, a 45% TV share. This does not include the number watching in clubs and pubs across Australia or Optus viewers.

3.4 total, 2.1 average not including Optus or as mentioned those watching in pubs with competition from Rugby, Cricket, AFL and NRL. A good result if you ask me.

Those are pretty good results - especially considering the number of live sites there were

Very good result. Wouldnt be surprised if those AFL and cricket results would just be tabs lol

Yeah, nothing to sneeze at, but iirc, the 97 Iran qualifier got over 4m, while up to 6m tuned in for the Uruguay game in 05. I was hoping it would challenge those numbers because it was such an important game and was shown in prime time. I guess that was too optimistic. Still decent numbers for sure. 

I don’t believe those numbers.

Divide them by the Australian population at the time, after taking off children under ten and elderly people, and it becomes pretty clear that they are doubtful.

Ratings are estimates, used to attract advertisers, and are most likely statistically flawed.

Why are you taking off elderly people and children? Can't they watch football? 

They are estimates and I have no idea how accurate they are, but they are a useful guide. I can easily believe the Uruguay game had a massive audience, since pretty much everyone I knew tuned in at some point even if they hated football otherwise. 

Agree when live sites & clubs are included plus Optus between 4 & 5 million is possible.

5 million viewers would mean 1 person for every 5 people who reside in Australia would be watching.

Hardly likely for any telecast.

Not sure SBS analysis Craig Foster did SBS any favour's last night, his often reference to we don't attack and he prefers a different style of play is IMO becoming more than annoying for me anyway. I understand many worship the ground he walks on but a newbie turning in hhhhhmmmmm what they think ... maybe he only wants to talk to hard core Football folk in his analysis.

not to mention commentating from craig moore who forgets he's not at home watching on the couch with a beer

Thought the commentary was alright actually. Basheer for the first time wasn't poor IMO

Yeah basheer was actually ok. Moore is terrible as is Lucy. Foz does seem to be very negative about all things Australian football.

he was only stating the obvious, it was nothing controversial

I thought Moore’s commentary was pretty good last night. Way better than anyone that co-commentates on Fox imo

Your memory is shot
https://www.crikey.com.au/2005/11/17/big-ratings-for-sbs-but-not-that-big/

Lists both the Iran game and Uruguay game

The only time I have heard 6m for football was 6m people at some point watched the 2006 world cup

The AFL grand final, most watched event of 2017, was 2.7m metro. Thats the kind of figures we can reach at our absolute highest

The Beckham game was 1.1m and the Man Utd game was 750k. So 1.6m seems about right for a prime time Saturday game with all its issues

This wasnt a one off cut throat game with a prize on the line, or our first world cup in 30 years. This was our first group game for a fractured team that many have said may well be the worst Socceroos A team ever assembled in recent memory

Dont forget also that people dont want to just see their team play. You need the whole tournament to give the games you want to see context. The Optus decision may prove costly. The ratings for the Spain and Portugal game were 114k Live and 112k Replay. 225k is the peak A League audience which means only core fans are watching

I admit I heard 6m for Uruguay from some ABC talkshow the other day, so I was never confident in the figure. Still, the article does say that 4.5m tuned in at some point. That's pretty huge. 

And I swear the 4m in 97 was bandied about as fact in the media. Maybe that was the total cumulative audience as well. 

3.4 is reach, not total. 2.1m is the total average including metro & regional.

The most watched event last year was origin 3, not the afl gf. The afl like to quote metro only because it disadvantages events popular in the more decentralised states of nsw and qld.

2.1m was a brilliant result for a Saturday night up against a lot of other sport. It will likely only be behind the AFL & NRL gf and state of origin, all of which are in clean air.

I agree, I think Craig Foster does turn the average Australian off Football. 

Plus he so gaunt and skinny too like unhealthy. I don’t remember him being that skinny as a player. I hope he’s well but I reckon he’s just obsessed with himself.

Just for comparison though...... 

State of Origin Game 1
3.45 million (Metro 2.35 million, regional 1.10 million) 

So outrated the highest ever AFL grand final but not the State of Origin. Either way pretty decent numbers. 

@azzaMVFC

Agreed. And State of Origin had clean air from a sports perspective whereas the Socceroos were directly up against a home wallabies test, and a full day of AFL and NRL and the Cricket vs The Poms started late in to the match.

Numbers don't include those at live sites, watching with mates, etc etc, but I guess the AFL/NRL wouldn't either so it's a good comparison

Metro only ratings

2018 FIFA WORLD CUP: DEN V AUS 1,655,000

https://tvtonight.com.au/category/ratings

is that good ratings? 

Yep thats good.Higher than on Sat night and topped the daily ratings by daylight.