Smallest country to feature in World Cup made huge domestic TV debut, with 99.6% of everybody watching TV tuning in

Iceland’s National Broadcasting Service, RÚV, has announced that 99.6% of Icelanders who were watching television on Saturday afternoon chose to watch their national team’s World Cup debut against Argentina.

The match was shown on RÚV sports, and is, according to the channel, the most-watched sporting event in the history of the country. Viewership of the game averaged 60% of Iceland’s 335,000 population, eclipsing the 58.8% who watched Iceland beat England at Euro 2016.

FC Augsburg striker Alfreð Finnbogason, who scored Iceland’s goal on Saturday to earn their point from Argentina, joked on social media that the other 0.4% of Iceland’s population were on the pitch at the time.



Alfreð Finnbogason (@A_Finnbogason) The other 0,4% was on the pitch! pic.twitter.com/FNtzRKTlrp

The match also proved popular in the US. Nielsen Media Research ratings for Fox Sports showed it to be the most-watched match of the tournament so far, with an average of 2.9m viewers.



Iceland next face Nigeria and then Croatia in their remaining two group games.