They came up just short in their knockout-round match with Belgium on Tuesday. But online, Team USA is already a World Cup winner.
FIFA, international soccer’s ruling body, says fans in the United States have been more active on its websites and mobile apps than any other country.
During the past 28 days, 36.7 million U.S. fans have engaged with the World Cup’s online properties, a spokesman for the organization said. That’s 11.2% of the country’s population and has accounted for 23% of the total activity.
FIFA measured actions on its website and Facebook page as well as downloads of its mobile app.
The news was a surprise to folks at the Zurich, Switzerland-based FIFA. Unlike most nations in the world, soccer has been slow to capture the imagination of sports fans in the States, where “football” is played mainly on Saturdays and Sundays and you can use your hands a lot more.l
But as the U.S. men’s team played its way out of a tough opening-round group that included Germany, Portugal and Ghana, U.S. Web users spent a total of 847 years and 143 days engaged with FIFA content.
That’s more than soccer-crazy rivals Brazil, Germany, England and France combined.
Part of all that may be American fans working hard to catch up.
