It’s a big moment for Judo as the ratings have come out for the World Judo Championships, held in Astana, Kazakhstan, from August 24-30, 2015. According to Judo Crazy, a record number of people tuned into the competition.

A record number of 193 million viewers worldwide tuned in to television coverage from the World Judo Championships 2015, organised in Astana from August 24-30, 2015. Compared to accumulated television viewership of 110 million for the 2014 World Judo Championships in Chelyabinsk, Russia, the 2015 figures registered an increase of 72% over the corresponding event just one year ago.

Reacting to the record television viewership, International Judo Federation president, Marius Vizer said, “I am delighted to note that the World Judo Championships found resonance amongst sports fans across the world on an unprecedented scale this year. The remarkable quality of action on display has gone a long way in attracting more sports fans to live coverage of judo and created greater understanding of the sport. I would like to thank all our television partners for their efforts in taking the sport to wider audiences and raising the profile of judo worldwide.”

Total television broadcasting of over 1000 hours factored for live, delayed, highlights and news coverage from the world championships, which created a total of 3 billion event impressions worldwide. This figure registered a 147% increase from the corresponding event in Chelyabinsk in 2014. An increase from 726 broadcasting hours in Chelyabinsk was due to multiple new broadcasting partners associating with the event from new broadcast territories.

France and Japan led the cumulative television audience figures with 77 million and 67 million viewers, respectively. Amongst the most-watched events was the coronation of Teddy Riner as world champion in the +100 kg category for a record 8th consecutive time.

The World Judo Championships 2015 even broke new ground on the internet as a collective audience of 2.5 million viewers watched the event via live streaming on the official IJF channel, www.ippon.tv and over 44 million event impressions were created over the world wide web, highlighting the growing interest in judo worldwide.

The IJFs social media activity was also extensively followed globally. Facebook activity in the one-week period registered over 28 million impressions worldwide and witnessed 4.8 million engagements (likes, shares and comments) on content shared through the platform. Content shared through Twitter registered a potential reach of almost 1 million active users in the one-week period, thus indicating the most successfully engaging IJF World Judo Championships in history.