Russians show their support and determination to win the World Cup. (Image Source: Reuters)

With two weeks into the World Cup, the football fever is sweeping fans across the world and India is no different.

Despite India not featuring in the World Cup, over 117.3 million viewers tuned in to watch the greatest footballing event on earth, in the first nine days of the tournament across 26 matches, according to the Sony Pictures Network India (SPN).

SPN, which holds the media rights for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, revealed that 99.3 million viewers watched the World Cup on TV channels SONY TEN2, SONY TEN3, and SONY ESPN, while 18 million live streamed it on SonyLIV.

According to data released by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), Germany vs Mexico was the most viewed fixture registering over seven million impressions, while Sony Ten 2 jumped from the fourth spot to become the most viewed sports channel in the week 25 of 2018.

As witnessed in last week's report, West Bengal, Kerala, North East and Maharashtra remained the top contributors in terms of viewership, accountable for over 38 percent of the total viewership, cumulatively.

Female followership of the tournament continued to grow with 46 percent of the total viewers being women.

The local language feeds (Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu) also continued to gain traction contributing over 46 percent of the total viewership, while prime-time games (8.30 pm and 9.30 pm) recorded an average viewership of 4.8 million impressions.

"Our regional commentary accounted for 46% of the overall viewership which shows a deep penetration and high impact that the football tournament has made with our viewers," said Rajesh Kaul, President, Distribution and Sports Business, Sony Pictures Networks India.

"Our strategy of engaging viewers and catering to their convenience with local language feeds has helped us expand the market and reach out to a wider fan base," he further added.