30 Most Watched TV Events That Drew Millions, Even Billions, Of Spectators Worldwide

The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on September 19 was the first British monarch service to be broadcast on television. It was estimated that more than 5 billion people watched the historic occurrence.

Only three people, Lady Diana, Zinedine Zidane, and Muhammad Ali, have been featured on this list more than once. Unfortunately for Diana, her second occasion was her funeral, which was held on September 6, 1997.

Many can still clearly recall where they were on Tuesday morning when the first bits of news began to circulate. Media coverage started when American Airlines Flight 11 collided with the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 in the morning. Three more planes crashed in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania within an hour and fifteen minutes. The deadliest terrorist attack in human history was broadcast to a global audience of two billion people.

Muhammad Ali was the highlight of the Opening Ceremony of the Atlanta Summer Olympics on July 19, 1996. The legendary boxer, whose name became synonymous with the phrase “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” lit the Olympic flame while in a heavy battle with Parkinson’s disease. Many will never forget this extraordinary, surprising, and gasp-inducing historical moment.

It’s no coincidence that the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony occurred on August 8, 2008 (8/8/08), as the number 8 is considered the luckiest of numbers in China. On that particular day, 15,000 performers put on an incredible performance. In addition to appearing to be walking on a cloud while lighting the torch, the Chinese also made the clouds outside the Beijing National Stadium disappear. They literally changed the weather, so there was no rain throughout the event.

The Live Aid concert, held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia on July 13, 1985, attracted nearly 2 billion spectators. The shows attracted viewers from 150 nations and prompted simultaneous concerts in other countries.

The 2002 World Cup Final featured the battle between Brazil and Germany. Oddly enough, it was their first time facing off in the Finals despite at least one of these teams appearing in all but five of the 18 Finals since WWII.

This was the last fight of Ali’s career, ranking amongst the most-viewed TV events in history. After just eight professional fights, Spinks won the title of Undisputed Heavyweight Champion. He was the only man ever to take a world title away from Ali in the ring.

A charity event was organized on the 20th anniversary of Live Aid. To raise money to end poverty worldwide, the G8 countries and South Africa performed simultaneous concerts on July 2, 2005. The "Make Poverty History" campaign aimed to raise $50 billion for aid to developing countries, with half of that amount going to Africa. Unfortunately, the G8 nations' promise of that goal mostly fell short.

In a July 1989 interview, Roger Waters stated that he would only perform The Wall live once more "if the Berlin Wall came down." Four months later, it did. On July 21, 1990, Pink Floyd performed a rock extravaganza just eight months after the Berlin Wall came down, allowing East and West Germans to freely cross to the other's side. 

Regarding the number of TV spectators, the King of Pop triumphed over the King of Rock. Still, Michael Jackson would have probably chosen to defeat Elvis with a music battle rather than his memorial. Two billion people tuned in to watch the tribute being paid to Jackson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, 2009.

On July 12, 1998, almost eight years before the infamous headbutt, Zidane was nothing short of extraordinary, scoring two goals to lead France to a 3-0 victory and its first World Cup title.

The "wedding of the century" at the time was Prince Charles and Lady Diana's "fairytale" nuptials which took place on July 29, 1981. That day, Lady Diana transformed from the assistant to a nursery teacher to the Princess of Wales and the mother of the future King of England.

There were 3.61 billion people on Earth when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon at 8:17 p.m. UTC on July 20, 1969. 600 million of them tuned in to see Armstrong take his first steps on the moon, making up an incredible 1/6 of all humanity.

On October 2, 1980, Ali entered the ring to face Larry Holmes, the WBC Heavyweight Champion. At Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, he stood toe-to-toe against Holmes in a ten-round battle before his manager stopped it.

Approximately one in four people watched the most recent Royal Wedding, which took place on May 19, 2018. As is custom, Prince Harry received his official peerages, or titles, before the wedding.

On July 28, 1984, in Los Angeles, the opening ceremony included one of the most lavish productions in Olympic history. President Ronald Reagan welcomed the world and signaled the beginning of the games as almost 100,000 spectators crammed into the Los Angeles Coliseum to watch.

A ramp that was 2,300 feet underground in the Chilean Copiapo goldmine collapsed on August 5, 2010, trapping 33 miners. The population of Chile and the rest of the world questioned whether there were any survivors. Then, on August 22, a note saying, "We are fine in the shelter, the 33 of us," was found. Despite increased rescue efforts, the miners were imprisoned for nearly two more months. On October 13, the 33 miners were extracted from the ground one by one as a billion people paused to watch coverage of the 23-hour rescue.

Arguably the oddest battle Ali ever took on is this one. Yet, it is significant because it is regarded as the first mixed martial arts match to ever take place on a global scale. Antonio Inoki was a Japanese wrestler fixed on conquering champions with other fighting disciplines to advance his own fighting style. Until a few days before the fight, Ali believed he was participating in a carefully staged fight. However, the fictitious match turned into a real one when he refused.

For the first time in 32 years, neither Brazil nor Germany was present in the 2010 World Cup Final. The Netherlands accumulated nine yellow cards and a red card, compared to Spain's five, making it the tournament's dirtiest game. Four minutes later, the game was over, and Spain had won their first and, so far, only World Cup.

The entire cricketing community tuned in to see the semi-final match between the Indians and Pakistanis on February 15, 2015, at the Cricket World Cup. Although Pakistan had more victories overall, India took the victory this time.

Before this battle which took place on October 1, 1975, Joe Frazier and Ali squared off twice, with a 1-1 tie. The two engaged in 14 brutal rounds of combat in 120-degree heat before Frazier threw in the towel due to face swelling that thwarted him from seeing. 

The 2006 World Cup Final is not remembered for the things it should be. On June 30, 2006, during the final, Zinedine Zidane hit Marco Materazzi in the chest with his head, which caused Zidane to receive a red card and be dismissed from the game. What Materazzi said to Zidane to push him to behave as such caused a lot of debate. 

Kate Middleton was crowned the Catherine Duchess of Cambridge on April 29, 2011. The wedding was so extensively publicized because it was aired on YouTube to 188 different countries worldwide. Apparently, more than 350 million were watching the event on television.

Muhammad Ali, a former heavyweight champion of the world who won the title three times, passed away on June 3, 2016. A week later, on June 10, a memorial service was held to honor him. Muhammad Ali was unparalleled in the history of sportsmen when it came to their capacity to draw crowds.

According to estimates, 93 percent of American television owners watched the funeral. Then, on November 25, 1963, the funeral captured not just the country's but also the world's attention.

In addition to holding the title of Heavyweight Champion of the World, Foreman also had a 40-bout winning streak, making him a 4-1 favorite coming into the battle. In the fight, Ali radically changed his strategy and used what is now known as the "rope-a-dope" to defeat Foreman.

On January 14, 1973, "Aloha from Hawaii" was broadcast by satellites to a billion people in 40 different nations. Elvis never performed outside North America because Colonel Tom Parker, his manager, was an illegal immigrant. The Colonel made up for it by creating the first solo artist entertainment special to be broadcast live around the globe. Despite Super Bowl VII airing simultaneously, it still drew a billion viewers.

In their first World Cup Final appearance, Croatia tried to beat France on July 15, 2018, in front of more than 1 billion spectators. While France triumphed in the final 4-2 with the final goal from Kylian Mbappe, Luka Modric received the Golden Ball award for the tournament's most excellent performance.

Every year on December 31, some of the most stunning fireworks displays transpire in front of Sydney's renowned Opera House and Sydney Harbour. Hundreds of millions of people annually tune in to watch the Australians celebrate. Still, the record attendance was in 2011, when an estimated 1.1 billion people tuned in.