AFC Asian Cup Qatar achieves record-breaking numbers

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Doha, Qatar: The AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 has set several new historical records, reaffirming Qatar’s status as a regional and global sports hub.

A total of 86,492 spectators made their way to the iconic Lusail Stadium for the AFC Asian Cup Qatar final. With that, a record-breaking attendance of 1,509,496 fans was registered for the tournament, surpassing the previous attendance record of 1.04 million set during the 2004 edition hosted by China. This was one of many records set by the tournament, one that Qatar successfully hosted for a third time.

H E Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, Chairman of the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 Local Organising Committee (LOC), views the tournament’s success as a testament to Qatar’s ambitions and capabilities, solidifying its reputation as a global sports hub, which plays a key role in the country’s development strategy: “Once again, Qatar has proven its ability to host the world’s best sporting events. Over a span of one month, Qatar welcomed Asia’s best players as well as hundreds of thousands of fans from across the continent. What we witnessed was a festival like atmosphere that celebrated different cultures while treating fans to wonderful displays on the pitch.”

“I thank everyone who worked tirelessly to deliver this success and look forward to the next tournament here in Qatar, which will add another milestone to our record of achievements.”

Global interest the AFC Asian Cup achieved unprecedented widespread media coverage, evidenced by statistics and data from traditional, digital and various social media channels.

Given that media management plays a crucial role in major sporting events, the Local and Regional Media Department prioritised creating the optimal environment for journalists and ensuring top-tier technical services were available to them. These efforts empowered journalists to effectively carry out their responsibilities, seamlessly covering the tournament.

The 2023 edition attracted the widest television coverage in the history of the tournament, with matches broadcasted by 60 television networks from over 160 countries worldwide. Additionally, more than 3,000 accredited media from 55 countries played a key role in sharing stories from the pitch with the rest of the world. The tournament’s media success showcases the country’s prominent role regionally and globally. Qatar’s organising committee played a key part in this achievement, drawing on their extensive experience to seamlessly host major sporting events.

The tournament also broke digital engagement records across all LOC social media channels. More than 1.2 billion impressions were made, with over the 9.5 million engagements. This means a total reach of over 196 million, including more than 328 million video views. The tournament’s official website registered more than 8.8 million clicks during the tournament.

More than 1 million tickets were sold for the tournament, with Qatar, India, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Philippines, and Indonesia leading the way. Since the official launch of ticketing sales on 10 October, 2024, the official ticketing website has been visited a total of 74 million times by 1.45 million users. There were 240,000 users in queue for tickets to the final match alone.