By the time England captain Steven Gerrard triumphantly raises the World Cup trophy in the Maracanã stadium on 13 July following England's 5-0 thrashing of hosts Brazil in the final, a cumulative audience of eight billion will have tuned into the world's most popular sporting tournament (figure from Futures Sport +Entertainment).
One of the great joys of the World Cup has always been its ability to create a sense of connection through shared experience. It is a social event at heart. But the 20th FIFA World Cup, which kicks off this week in São Paulo, is set to elevate notions of connectedness and shared experience to new levels.
Despite reports of civil unrest and yet more allegations about FIFA’s moral bankruptcy, most experts are predicting that it will be not only the most ‘social’ World Cup to date, but the most social event to date, far outstripping the last World Cup in 2010 in South Africa, the 2012 London Olympics and this year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi.
"It’s live, it’s public and it’s controversial so we are set up to expect this to be possibly the biggest Twitter event in history," says Lewis Wiltshire, head of global partnerships at Twitter UK – although he cannot make a direct comparison with the 2010 World Cup because its measurement systems have changed.
