Socceroos’ Tunisia triumph a TV ratings smash, 24 hours of the power of Australian football

As the Socceroos were busy defeating Tunisia in Qatar, football itself was busy doing what it does best: uniting and captivating a nation. 

Mitchell Duke’s goal in Australia’s seismic 1-0 win over the African nation at the FIFA Men’s World Cup served a multitude of purposes: in Qatar it kept the Socceroos’ dreams alive, breaking the nation’s 12-year winless run at the World Cup finals. Back home it obliterated TV ratings and sparked iconic, pulsating scenes of celebration, which have since gone viral.

SBS, Australia’s World Cup broadcaster, drew an average of 1.34 million viewers nationally throughout the game, which kicked off at 9.00pm AEDT. A total of 386,000 streamed the match on SBS On Demand, with SBS’s average audience across app and on live TV surging past 1.7 million. 

At one stage the viewership almost reached 2.5 million; SBS dominated the Saturday Free To Air ratings as a result, with Media Week recording the top three FTA programs on Saturday night as follows:

  1. SBS: Tunisia v Australia
  2. Network Seven: Seven News
  3. SBS: Tunisia v Australia post-match

It says a lot about the crowd at Melbourne’s Federation Square that the videos of the thousands of fans celebrating Duke’s sensational match-winner in the city’s public square have become almost as iconic as the footage of the goal itself in the aftermath of the night that was.

Footage flew across social media as night turned to early morning in Australia, with the chaos caused firstly by Duke’s opener, and then by the full-time whistle captured from all angles.

Here’s the pick of the bunch:

https://twitter.com/JRZZ_7/status/1596458912454098946

Shades of ’06 as Australian football lauded by the masses

The celebrations may have caused some sore heads on Sunday morning…

But in reflection on a magnificent evening in Australian football, the consensus on social media was to harken back to the glorious days of Germany 2006, the Socceroos’ golden generation and the similar emotions the current crop are evoking in the Australian public after an unforgettable win destined for Australian football folklore.

https://twitter.com/Luke_C168/status/1596483636177821699