PRELIMINARY RESEARCH FIGURES released by independent agencies indicate that the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations 2025 in Morocco delivered a 61 per cent increase in global viewership.
The significant growth has been driven by record-breaking global coverage across media platforms in Europe and several other key markets. United Kingdom and France emerged as the leading territories contributing the largest share of the audience increase for the tournament.
A major factor behind the expanded reach was the commercial partnership between Confederation of African Football (CAF) and global sports marketing agency IMG. The collaboration resulted in a 50 per cent increase in the number of broadcast partners across Europe and other strategic markets.
The tournament secured several new broadcast agreements, including first-time deals in Japan, China, South Korea, Mexico, Greece and Colombia. As a result, the 2025 edition became the most widely distributed AFCON tournament globally to date.
In South America, viewership also saw strong growth. In Brazil alone, more than 24 million people tuned in to watch the competition, while audiences in Mexico accounted for nearly two million viewers. These figures highlight the tournament’s growing popularity in the region and CAF’s expanding global footprint.
CAF’s global media distribution strategy also played a key role in increasing exposure for commercial partners. The federation’s approach, which included in-house shoulder programming and highlights distribution, led to a more than 65 per cent rise in brand partner media exposure across European and South American markets.
Key figures from the tournament include:
* A 50 per cent increase in international broadcast partners compared with the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations held in Côte d’Ivoire
* A 32 per cent rise in media value for partners across European markets
* A 35 per cent increase in overall media rights revenue across South America, Europe and Asian markets
* In the UK, the final attracted more than three million viewers on Channel 4. Meanwhile, Germany recorded a record tournament audience of over four million viewers via Sport Digital
* India also emerged as a new market for the tournament, with matches streamed on FanCode attracting more than 800,000 viewers, marking a strong debut audience for AFCON in the country
* New broadcast partnerships for the tournament included DAZN in Japan, NAVER and STN in South Korea, Douyin, Leisu and Zhibo8 in China, Fox Sports and Claro Sports in Mexico, Movistar in Spain, Win Sports in Colombia, ERT in Greece, VG in Norway, Cablenet in Cyprus and Medianet in the Maldives
