Rating: Average Viewers: 400million
It's perhaps unsurprising when India vs Pakistan
at the 2015 World Cup brought a global audience
of more than 1billion viewers - making it the
most-watched match in history - that this
quadrennial 50-over tournament gets on the list,
and its average viewership is around 400million.

9.Rating: Average Viewers: 478million
Nowhere near as big as its summer cousin, but
the quadrennial Winter Olympic Games still draws
a large audience - particularly from Canada,
Scandinavia and Russia - and the average
viewership is just shy of half a billion for sports
including skiing, snowboarding and the mighty
curling.

8.
Rating: Average Viewers: 775million
The first annual sporting event on the list, Italy's
cycling Grand Tour takes place between May and
June and, as well as attracting millions of live
spectators, the three-week long race is also
watched by a yearly average 775million people.

7.
Rating: Average Viewers: 789million
Another quadrennial tournament, the rugby
union World Cup was first introduced in 1987 and
the seven editions to date have brought in an
average TV audience of close to 800million -
primarily from Western Europe and Australasia, it
must be said.

Rating: Average Viewers: 986million
Although the Asian Games may at first appear an
unusual entry on to this list, when you consider
that more than two-thirds of the world's
population live on the continent, then it is
perhaps unsurprising that almost 1billion people
on average watch the quadrennial multi-sports
event.

5.Rating: Average Viewers: 1billion
The first of three entries for the world's most-
loved sport, the FIFA Confederations Cup - played
between the six FIFA confederation championship
winners, the World Cup holder, as well as the host
nation - was first introduced in 1992 and is
watched by an average 1billion TV viewers every
four years.

4.


Rating: Average Viewers: 1.7billion
European football attracts the top talent in the
world - which is exactly why the continent's
premier club competition the UEFA Champions
League has an annual global TV audience of
1.7billion (cumulative for all the matches).

3.


Rating: Average Viewers: 2billion
London 2012 may have captured the imagination
of the British public - but the quadrennial Olympic
Games is actually loved all around the world. An
average 2billion tune in to watch the likes of
Usain Bolt (pictured, right) win the 100-metres
and Mo Farah (pictured, left) claim gold in the
10,000-metres - and that's before you even
mention the various sports outside the athletics'
stadium.

2.

Rating: Average Viewers: 2.6billion
A slight surprise at number two on the list, but the
three-week Tour de France attracts an average TV
viewership of 2.6billion - but perhaps it shouldn't
come as a shock seeing as cycling's most-famous
Grand Tour, which takes place in July, is actually
the best-attended annual sporting event on the
planet

1.Rating: Average Viewers: 3.5billion
Yes, it was almost inevitable that international
football's premier tournament would be top of
this list - with the FIFA World Cup drawing an
average cumulative TV audience of 3.5billion
every four years. In fact, the 2014 World Cup final
between Germany and Argentina in Brazil drew
almost 1billion viewers alone - now that's
impressive.

Wow! Interesting