When the league season ends in any country, football fans are left a bit stunned as that means at least two months without any action in their favorite sport. However, the 2024 summer is different, with many lovers of the game even waiting for club formalities to end in anticipation of the sheer quality that comes with international competition.
We are, of course, talking about a post-season phase where fans will have the European Championship, Copa America, and then the Olympics to look forward to. The first of these tournaments has begun, and what an exciting round of matches we have witnessed during the first week of the Euro 2024.
There have been statement wins, shocks, close games, and goal-fests to whet the appetite of all types of followers. Most importantly, unlike most major international competitions where the group stage turns out to be a slew of boring or predictably one-sided matches, the first set of games across Germany have been a joy to watch, at least a majority of them.
This excitement and quality on offer has meant that the Euro 2024 has attracted attention from across the globe. South American fans have especially shown interest in proceedings across the pond, and that has been reflected in the live-streaming habits of quite a few renowned channels.
One of the biggest names in the Portuguese-speaking community when it comes to covering football and sports has seemingly gotten hooked on the action. CazeTV has been covering almost all the matches held so far and has been the most-watched non-European channel when it comes to coverage of this quadrennial football tournament.
In fact, he has by far been the most viewed channel overall, with his YouTube account hitting a pretty solid total of 2.9M Hours Watched between June 14 and 18. Factor in his Twitch channel, which also makes it among the top entries by this metric, and he has cumulatively attracted an astonishing 3.03M HW by himself.
The Brazilian online star's popularity, which has seen him cover some of the country's biggest football matches and tournaments recently, has lent itself to making him one of its biggest names. As a result, he also attracted a significant number of peak concurrent viewers, hitting the one million mark, the only creator covering the European Championship to do so not just from the continent but among all names.
Also known as Casimiro, the football influencer's interest in European football and his ability to pull in such large numbers is an extension of the continent's pull in the world game. After all, it has the biggest leagues, richest clubs, most followed teams, and best footballers plying their trade in countries like England, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
It can also be argued that the European football body, UEFA, is the most powerful within FIFA, the world organization's, permit. With so many of South America's most precocious and successful talents emigrating across the Atlantic in search of a good career and the fame that comes with it, there is no doubt that interest is so high in the game there globally, thus placing tremendous power on the officials running the show there.
This is further seen in the fact that among the ten most-watched channels over the first five days covering Euro 2024, six are from outside Europe. This list includes the likes of IShowSpeed, runthefutmarket (both United States), and davooxeneize (Argentina), with most entities coming from South America, which is perhaps the most famous example of a region's love for football across the world.
Fans must note that Speed is in Germany covering the event via his IRL streams and was even present during the Portugal game against Czechia (Czech Republic) to watch his idol Cristiano Ronaldo in action. He also met Nader El-Jindaoui — a German influencer and footballer — with the two sharing a ride as part of the American's vlog broadcast and talking about all things football and more.
Moving on to the overall Twitch chat section, we have analyzed which teams and players were the most talked about after a frankly delightful first matchday across the groups. We have looked at the most successful and followed names and seen how much engagement they have caused among football fans.
Eternal tournament favorite France was the most discussed side, seeing almost 50K messages exchanged among over 31K users. With a squad that runs deep and possesses one of the world's best players in Kylian Mbappe, Les Bleus have been backed to add the European Championship to their kitty, especially after missing out in the last two editions despite being overwhelming favorites.
However, it was not the most auspicious of starts, with the 2018 world champion eking out a 1:0 win over Austria in its opening game. The side was far from convincing, with only an own goal seeing it collect three points from a game that provided a more serious problem in the form of a broken nose to its talisman and captain.
Mbappe, whose cross led to the only goal of the game, had a coming together with Austria defender Kevin Danso when they competed for the ball in the air late in the Group D opener in Duesseldorf. The new Real Madrid signing came off worse, with blood pouring from his nose.
However, fans will feel better after recent news ahead of the side's next game against the Netherlands in Leipzig on Friday. It was revealed that while the former PSG star had a broken nose but won't require an operation, and although it is not certain he will play, any action will see him sport a face mask at the minimum.
England, perennial underachievers at the international level despite the talent at its disposal, was second among the most talked about sides. It was the only other participant to accrue over 40K messages between June 14 and 18, and having started with a nervy 1:0 win over a stubborn Serbia, fans will hope performances improve now that the team is on the board.
Rounding off the podium is Portugal, yet again led by the legendary Cristiano Ronaldo and the indefatigable Pepe. The Roberto Martnez-led side also had to fight for a 2:1 win over Czechia, but man punters and fans are backing the side to go all the way in what could be its most famous footballing sons' last appearance at this competition.
Other top sides to make this top ten were Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, and Belgium. All these names apart from Belgium won their opening fixtures, with the Red Devils (and striker Romelu Lukaku's) implosion against Slovakia proving to be the source of many memes over the past week.
Not surprisingly, among players, Ronaldo and Mbappe were the most popular on Twitch chat, attracting 28.7K and 26.8K mentions, respectively. Both did not find the net in their first games, but there's lots of time to rectify that, with both superstars looking hell-bent on winning this tournament and adding to their glittering legacies.
England striker Harry Kane was third, although most of the discourse around him must have been around how he failed to make much of an impact for England as he was tasked with prowling the penalty box rather than his usual 'quarterback role.' What is for sure is that if the Three Lions are to go far, their record goalscorer will need to find his scoring boots and lead the line with aplomb.
It's still early in the Euro 2024 to make concrete claims as to who will win and who will crash and burn in the group stage. What is certain is that fans are in for a great month of football, with a few players set to immortalize themselves while a few others are left to lick their wounds as they get back to their clubs and the grind of the regular league season.
