FIFA World Cup 2022: Are gamers putting their boots on?

With the World Cup fast approaching, the event is expectedly gaining an increasing amount of attention. In some markets, a larger proportion of gamers are paying attention to chatter about the Qatar World Cup compared to the general population, as we detail in this article.

Does this attention transition into an excitement to play the FIFA video game title? That is the topic of our exploration in this article. YouGov GameIndex tells us that an increasing share of gamers in select markets have begun playing the video game. Gamers in this piece are those who play video games on PC or console for at least an hour each week. It is worth bearing in mind that FIFA 23 is the last FIFA title from EA Sports, which is a story we analysed earlier this year.

Shares of gamers playing the title have risen sharply in the US – from 8.1 to 14.6 – between October 4 and November 3, and noticeably in Germany (10.6 to 13.2). Even in South Korea, for which we use a general population sample instead of one focussing on gamers, figures have risen from an already respectable 11.8 to 13.7.

But the numbers in UK have taken a sharp hit, declining from 10.6 to 4.6. It is worth noting here that Buzz scores for the World Cup have been negative among UK gamers, markedly lower than among all UK adults (for whom Buzz scores are also in negative territory). This, perhaps, suggests a link between the perception of a real-life sport or tournament and appetite for its gaming version, something gaming marketers should look out for.

In China, which is the only market in this piece that doesn’t have a team in the World Cup, scores have stayed flat, going from 2.9 to 2.6.

It will be interesting to see whether scores in the UK pick up once the tournament begins. Consideration scores for the franchise among gamers in the UK are at 17%, which is an indication that there remains room for a solid revival. Consideration scores, which is the percentage of people who say they would consider playing a title, are the highest among gamers in Germany at 22%, with US following closely behind (19%). Under a fifth of all adults in South Korea also say they would consider playing FIFA (17%), as do 4% of gamers in China.

Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. The Current Customer score is based on the question: Have you played any of the following video games in the last 30 days? and delivered as a percentage. Scores are based on an average daily sample size of 170 - 505 gamers in China, US, UK and Germany and 808 adults in South Korea between 4 October 2022 and 3 November 2022 based on a four-week moving average. Learn more about BrandIndex.