Recently, the 2024 São Paulo municipal election has heated up, with three major contenders emerging for the mayoral position. The incumbent major Ricrdo Nunes runs against Guilherme Boulos and Pablo Marçal. On September 15, Marçal was assaulted by another candidate, TV host Datena, with a metal chair. Later, on September 23, Marçal was expelled from the Flow Podcast debate for disparaging a fellow candidate and arguing with the mediator.
The incident on September 23 was caught live, as the Flow Podcast debate was broadcast on the YouTube channel of the same name. More than 1.06M Peak Viewers tuned in to the debate, making it one of the most-watched political moments of the year. Streams Charts has collated the viewership statistics for the debate and its coverage on Flow Podcast’s YouTube channel.
On September 23, Flow Podcast held a debate for the major mayoral candidates, and the YouTube Live broadcast maintained 507.9K Average Viewers for its entire duration. The debate’s peak viewership came about two hours into the event, as many candidates answered questions through a lottery system, and it managed to remain around 1,000,000 concurrent viewers for an hour.
In total, the debate reached 2.45M Hours Watched on YouTube Live, making it the most popular coverage of the São Paulo election this year. The show was more popular than other debates, such as the one hosted by SBT News three days prior, and other Flow Podcast events. Earlier in the year, the organization hosted a personal podcast-style interview with Pablo Marçal, which reached 642.4K peak concurrent live viewers, specifically around the time the businessman turned politician spoke about a possible presidency candidacy in the future.
Politics Livestreams in 2024
| Event | Peak Viewers | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Harris v. Trump debate | 2 377 403 | ABC News |
| Biden v. Trump debate | 1 592 400 | CNN |
| São Paulo Flow Podcast debate
|
1 064 685 | Flow Podcast |
| São Paulo SBT News debate
|
648 779 | SBT News |
Although the event was the most popular Brazilian political livestream to emerge from 2024 so far, it was not the most popular political livestream across the globe. Live coverage of debates for the United States Presidency Election has received millions of concurrent live viewers, with popularity rising with the new arrival of Harris.
Harris’ debate against former President Trump on September 11 was broadcast by ABC News for the public to enjoy on YouTube Live. The broadcast hovered in the low six-figures for a while before quickly picking up steam; an hour into the broadcast, the stream reached over 1,000,000 viewers, and not even another hour later, it reached its peak of 2.38M Peak Viewers.
This debate was significantly more popular the current President Biden’s debate against Trump hosted on CNN. The event received well over 1,000,000 average concurrent viewers, at more than 1.59M Peak Viewers. While this event was undoubtedly one of the most significant election moments of the year, the announcement of Harris as the candidate has brought more attention to the election.
