10m Russians watched World Cup opener

Almost 10 million Russians watched the television broadcast of the World Cup opening game between Russia and Saudi Arabia, a survey revealed on Monday.

During the World Cup opener at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, hosts Russia thrashed Saudi Arabia 5-0 to end a run of seven games without a win.

According to the survey conducted by the Mediascope research company, a total of 9,793,000 people aged 4 and older watched the broadcast of the game on Russia’s Channel One, while the general coverage of the broadcast, which represents all Russians who watched the match for at least one minute, was over 18.4 million people.

The company added that the opening match was watched by almost 50 percent of all the Russians who were watching TV at that moment.

The host are set to take on Egypt in their next game at the World Cup on Tuesday before facing their last Group A opponent, Uruguay, on 25 June.