Confederation of African Football has announced that the Africa Cup of Nations has experienced a significant rise in global popularity, with viewership increasing by 61 percent, a development that places the tournament among the fastest-growing sporting events worldwide.
The continental football governing body revealed the figures in preliminary research released on Monday ahead of the comprehensive report on the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations hosted in Morocco.
According to CAF, the impressive growth in audience numbers was largely driven by expanded global broadcast coverage secured across several major media platforms, particularly in Europe and other key international markets.
The full report detailing the tournament’s performance is expected to be released soon by global research agency Nielsen.
The 2025 edition of the competition was held from December 21, 2025, to January 18, 2026, with Senegal emerging champions.
Hosts Morocco finished second, while Nigeria secured third place.
CAF noted that the largest share of the growth came from European markets, particularly the United Kingdom and France, where viewership increased significantly during the tournament.
The governing body also credited its partnership with global sports marketing agency IMG for helping expand the tournament’s international visibility.
Through the collaboration, the number of broadcast partners worldwide rose by 50 percent compared to the previous edition.
As a result, the Morocco 2025 tournament reached new audiences across several countries, with first-time broadcast agreements secured in Japan, China, South Korea, Mexico, Greece and Colombia, making it the most widely distributed AFCON tournament to date.
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Viewership also expanded rapidly in South America. In Brazil alone, more than 24 million fans followed the competition, while nearly two million viewers tuned in from Mexico.
CAF described South America as an emerging market for the tournament, noting that its global media strategy — which included in-house content production and expanded highlights distribution — helped increase media exposure for commercial partners by more than 65 percent in both European and South American markets.
Further indicators of the tournament’s commercial growth included a 32 percent rise in media value for partners in Europe and a 35 percent increase in overall media rights revenue across South America, Europe and Asia.
Audience figures from Europe and Asia also showed strong engagement. In the United Kingdom, over three million viewers watched the final on Channel 4, while more than four million viewers tuned in to the final in Germany via Sportdigital.
Meanwhile, India emerged as another growing market for the competition, with the final streamed on FanCode attracting more than 800,000 viewers.
CAF said the expansion of broadcast partnerships across multiple continents reflects the growing global appeal of African football and the rising commercial value of the Africa Cup of Nations.