Soccer, the preeminent global game, commands huge TV numbers. The final of last year's UEFA Champions League -- a tournament involving Europe's top soccer clubs -- was watched by an audience of more than 180 million. The World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro in 2014 involved a combined in- and out-of-home audience of over a billion viewers. The tournament as a whole was watched by some 3 billion people.
But perhaps more worthy of note was the match in last year's Cricket World Cup between India and Pakistan. The traditional rivals do not often meet in the sporting arena, and so the game, even though it was only in the early stages of the tournament, attracted a huge audience in South Asia.
The BBC estimated that more than 1 billion people watched India's eventual victory over Pakistan in the Australian city of Adelaide. More than 288 million people watched in India alone.