According to the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) official website, an estimated 450 million people across the world followed the 2015 World Table Tennis Championships in Suzhou, China, making it the most followed table tennis event in history.
In China, where the event was hosted, 252 million stayed tuned to the World Championships on TV during the 50 hours of live coverage on CCTV5 and 150 hours of coverage on other Chinese networks, reports Xinhua.
Statistics from CSM Media research show that the men's singles final, featuring top seed Ma Long and another Chinese player Fang Bo, averaged 16 million viewers per minute, and 40 million in total, becoming the fourth most watched sports event of the year in China.
In addition, the table tennis worlds also saw a surge on ITTF's other platforms, including the official website, ITTF's free online streaming platform ITTF.com/itTV, ITTF's Facebook page, YouTube channel, Twitter and Instagram.
Over 1,000 accredited journalists came to Suzhou during the event. Their 11,000 articles reached hundreds of millions of people across the globe.
All these factors brought an unprecedented number of followers for the World Championships in Suzhou.