This past weekend, football fans were treated to a thrilling Pyrenean derby as Portugal faced off against Spain in the UEFA Nations League final. Over 70,000 fans packed the stands at Munich’s Allianz Arena, while millions more tuned in online. Streams Charts tracked the total livestream viewership and also analyzed which player generated more buzz among fans — Cristiano Ronaldo or Lamine Yamal.
The UEFA Nations League final was officially broadcast on cable networks and OTT platforms. Since the match wasn’t available for livestreaming, many streamers and content creators opted for a “radio-style” format to avoid copyright issues. Instead of showing the game, they hosted live discussions with guest analysts, reacted to goals and highlights, and kept viewers engaged through commentary and analysis.
Viewership statistics of the match
The UEFA Nations League final between Portugal and Spain was streamed by over 2,200 unique channels across YouTube, Twitch, Kick, and other platforms. Combined, these broadcasts generated 2.38 million Hours Watched (HW). The average concurrent viewership across all streams was 611,700, while peak viewership hit 1.18 million during the penalty shootout. Most of the audience for this match tuned in via YouTube Live.
Over 67% of the total watch hours came from organizational sports and news channels. The remainder was generated by individual streamers, mostly men. When it comes to languages, the majority of views were, unsurprisingly, on Spanish- and Portuguese-language streams, even though English-language channels were the most numerous.
Most popular channels during the final
The most popular broadcast channel was CBC Sport LIVE, which generated more than 225.3K HW.
The leader in terms of peak online viewing was TNT Sports Brasil, which was simultaneously watched by 173,535 Peak Viewers during the match.
Some of the top streamers who covered the finals include Elias ''eliasn97'' Nerlich from Germany and Jason ''jasontheween'' Nguyen from USA, who broadcast on Twitch. A special mention should be made of Peruvian Luis ''luisormenoa27'' Ormeño, who covered the match on Kick.
Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lamine Yamal
The match between the teams was accompanied by active discussion of their main stars — Cristiano Ronaldo and Lamine Yamal. Just before the game, Twitch users discussed the young Barcelona winger almost twice as often as the Portuguese legend. However, on the day of the game, the situation changed: the number of mentions of Ronaldo amounted to 15.6K messages, while the number of mentions of Yamal was at the level of 9.8K.
Ronaldo's goal in the second half played a big role in the match, allowing Portugal to level the score and go to a penalty shootout, where they willed a victory over the Spaniards.
Popular streamers on YouTube, Twitch, and other platforms are constantly covering major sporting events. Of course, they pay special attention to football. Recently we wrote about how they covered the UEFA Champions League final between Inter and PSG. If you want to get more news about viewership statistics of sports events in livestreaming, then visit our Sports section on Streams Charts.
