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Spectators follow the World Cup match between Germany and Japan: they were in the minority
Photo: Jan Kuhlmann / picture alliance / dpa
Significantly fewer viewers than usual tuned in to the ZDF broadcast of the World Cup match between Germany and Spain on Sunday.
Just 17 million people watched the 1-1 draw.
That was a whole lot more than in the preliminary round against Japan: According to the market research institute AGF, just 9.2 million people watched the ARD live broadcast from Qatar on Wednesday.
However, the numbers lagged behind the 2018 World Cup in Russia: 25.96 million viewers watched the opening game between Germany and Mexico.
However, the numbers are not entirely comparable: viewers who watched the game via streaming are not included in the numbers.
So the game took place on Wednesday at a particularly unfavorable time of day for the German audience: at 2 p.m. when many people were sitting in the office.
It can therefore be assumed that many interested parties did not follow the World Cup game on television but via streaming.
The game against Spain, on the other hand, could be seen on Sunday prime time from 8 p.m.
However, this probably cannot fully explain the decline.
The preliminary round match between France and Australia on Tuesday ran in prime time at 8 p.m.
Nevertheless, the ARD series "Die Kanzlei" was ahead that evening with more than five million viewers.
The World Cup game, on the other hand, was watched by only 4.96 million.
The number of viewers cannot be determined exactly.
All live broadcasts in 2022 took place both on public television and via streaming on Magenta TV.
However, it is not known how many people saw the game on Magenta TV.
Viewer numbers for public viewings are not included either.
In the past few days, several German politicians have made critical statements about the World Cup due to the human rights situation in Qatar.
"The comments made by Qatar's World Cup ambassador on being gay are underground and absolutely unacceptable," said Minister of Culture Claudia Roth.
"The recent incidents in Qatar really make it so difficult to watch this World Cup."
In a Civey study for SPIEGEL, around 70 percent of all respondents said they were not planning to follow the World Cup live this year.
Almost 60 percent justified this with the human rights situation on site.
A large majority stated that interest in the German national team had fallen compared to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
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