Cape Town - South Africans were flocking to sport websites during the recent 20/20 Cricket and Rugby World Cups, Nielsen Online revealed.
Figures showed that on average 213 668 South Africans a week visited a South African sports site in the six weeks before the Rugby World Cup - this increased by 39% to 297 824 across the seven weeks during the tournament.
The busiest week was the one in which South Africa won the Rugby World Cup - where the number of visitors peaked at 340 462.
"The Springboks weren't the only winners during the World Cup. South African sport sites experienced huge visitor increases as people flocked online for news and information relating to the 20/20 and Rugby World Cups, said internet analyst Alex Burmaster.
The busiest individual day for sports sites was the day after South Africa's semi-final victory against Argentina, where the daily audience peaked at 118 580 UBs.
"It's an interesting paradox that, overall, the busiest days for sports sites weren't the ones right around match-days yet the three busiest days, individually, were all around big rugby match-days. This might be because supporters were generally turning to the internet in the days between games when there was likely to be less TV and press coverage to satisfy their rugby and cricket appetite.
"Many will be surprised to see that the 20/20 tournament had a much bigger impact on sports sites than the rugby. Typically, sports sites had a 28% higher audience the days around South Africa matches in the 20/20 than they did in the days around the Boks rugby games. Perhaps, cricket as a sport with endless statistics is more suited to the online format, Burmaster added.
SA's top 10 sport sites
News24 Sport was the most popular sports website during the Rugby World Cup, averaging 90 113 UBs per week - 30% of the average weekly visitors to all sport websites (297 824 UBs).
"It really has been an amazing two months of sport, especially for South Africans. Sure, we did not do as well as we would have liked in the T20, but as a host nation, I think we did a fantastic job. Something we really can be proud of. And while I initially thought it a little silly to host it at the same time as the Rugby World Cup, it actually worked out perfectly given that it was a short and sharp tournament played during the pool games of the RWC," commented Sport24 editor, Andrew Lanning.
"Almost as exciting as the actual sporting events, are these traffic numbers released by Nielsen. The internet really lends itself to covering sport as all sorts of interactive applications can be incorporated into the coverage - like predicting scores and challenging your mates, cool wallpapers for your PC, downloadable video clips, and live scoring during the games and it is great to see the SA audience getting involved," Lanning added.
1. News24 Sport 90 113
2. supersport.co.za 76 685
3. superrugby.co.za 61 095
4. Sport24 56 110
5. iolsport.co.za 47 614
6. supercricket.co.za 37 011
7. Kick Off South Africa 24 786
8. supersoccer.co.za 19 912
9. PSL 18 333
10. sport.iafrica.com 17 604
- News24
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