During the IPL 2014 and FIFA World Cup 2014, UC Browser provided comprehensive content and services, allowing millions of enthusiastic footballs fans across the country to quickly and conveniently access the most complete and up-to-date IPL and FIFA World Cup information including live scores, text broadcast, stats, photos, videos and group updates. The huge traffic generated by these users allowed us to analyze the sports fever that swept across the country.
Although football is considered to be the most popular sport in the world, Indians actually prefer cricket. Do you know how much more popular cricket is in India? Let’s take a look at some interesting findings based on the group stage statistics gathered via UC Browser, and find out the answers.
1. IPL 2014 is three times as popular as FIFA World Cup 2014 in India
During the group stage, FIFA sites on UC Browser garnered 550,000 average daily Unique Visitors, among which 43.7% were from India. That’s to say, nearly 250,000 Indian users visited football sites via UC Browser everyday, generating over 1,000,000 page views daily.
Meanwhile, during the IPL 2014’s group stage, around 850,000 Indian users visited IPL sites with UC Browser every day. The number peaked during the IPL finals on 1st June, with more than one and a half million users visiting IPL sites. On that day, the Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Kings XI Punjab by three wickets.
Based on the data garnered from UC Browser (250,000 UV : 850,000 UV), we can conclude that in India, cricket is three times as popular as football. However, as we enter the Knockout Stage, it’s expected the the excitement among FIFA fans will continue to escalate bringing in more users who want stay up to date on the latest news to UC Browser.
2. Maharashtra has more football fans than any other states in the country.
According to UC Browser’s internal data, Maharashtra has the most footballs fans among the 29 states and 7 union territories. Here is the FIFA traffic index ranking by state.
3. Keyword analysis
UC Browser provides comprehensive content and services for fans during IPL 2014 and FIFA World Cup 2014. However, there are still a lots of search requests submitted everyday via UC Browser to search engines, mainly Google and Yahoo. We analyzed the top 50 IPL-related keywords and top 50 FIFA-related keywords. It turns out that IPL keywords are searched 2.5 times more than FIFA-related keywords.
4. Most searched football players among Indian users:
Messi is the most searched football player in India, followed by Ronaldo. Interestingly, Uruguayan striker Suarez quickly gained momentum in the search trend after his notorious biting incident. Here are the top 5 most searched footballers during FIFA World Cup 2014’s group stage.
5. 10 most talked about matches in group stage:
UC Browser also provided football fans from around the world a chance to connect and interact with each other during matches. Hence, we were able to see which match gained the most comments among fans:
