China's World Cup fever drives record views, $11.6B betting sales
China’s appetite for the 2026 FIFA World Cup reached new highs despite the national team’s absence. State broadcaster CCTV reported more than 70 billion cumulative cross-media views and official football lottery sales climbing to RMB83.3 billion ($11.6 billion) during the tournament.
According to CCTV, the audience peaked during the World Cup final between Argentina and Spain. The state broadcaster said its live cross-media broadcast reached a cumulative audience of 282 million, with real-time viewership climbing to 41.23 million; the broadcaster’s highest audience recorded this summer.
According to the state broadcaster, its multimedia platforms accounted for an 86.24 per cent share of World Cup broadcasting in China, while every match generated more than 100 million cumulative views across its media network. The Argentina-Switzerland knockout match recorded the tournament’s highest cumulative reach for a single fixture at 680 million.
TV receives biggest share of viewers; streaming platforms come second
The broadcaster said traditional television continued to attract large audiences during major sporting events. Meanwhile, digital platforms expanded engagement through interactive content and mobile viewing.
On its streaming platform CCTV Video, tournament content generated more than 12.6 billion views by 20 July and appeared on online trending lists 984 times, including 156 occasions when it ranked first. Programmes including Super Green Field, Midday Football Chat and Plain Talk with Style collectively attracted billions of online views through match analysis, immersive studio presentations and interactive discussions.
China Sports Lottery single-match football betting sales data
According to SCMP, official China Sports Lottery data showed weekly single-match football betting sales of RMB6.87 billion, RMB15.15 billion, RMB16.27 billion, RMB17.20 billion, RMB16.84 billion and RMB10.98 billion from the opening week through to the eve of the final. Sales peaked during the first week of the knockout stage, when turnover exceeded RMB17 billion.
The figures relate only to the state-run Sports Lottery’s legal single-match football betting products. China permits only two legal lotteries, the China Sports Lottery and the China Welfare Lottery, with proceeds supporting public welfare programmes.
The latest figures underline continued demand for football betting in mainland China even though the national team failed to qualify for the World Cup. China has reached the finals only once, in 2002, and finished fifth in its qualifying group for the 2026 tournament.
Authorities also stepped up efforts to combat illegal gambling during the competition. SCMP reported that Chinese social media platform Weibo removed more than 100,000 posts promoting unauthorised lottery sales, illegal betting and gambling-related traffic, while shutting down 120 groups linked to illegal gambling promotion and sanctioning more than 50,000 accounts.
Tech platform enforcement
Earlier this month, Chinese technology platform Douyin said it had flagged around 417,000 accounts linked to illegal gambling content. The firm said it permanently banned more than 90,000 for promoting unauthorised sports betting.
The ByteDance-owned platform also removed thousands of gambling-related livestreams and shared information with law enforcement as authorities intensified efforts against offshore betting networks during the World Cup.
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