August 21 – The AFC has reported a sharp rise in audiences across its national team and club competitions, with the confederation’s World Cup qualifiers generating a cumulative broadcast reach of 4.1 billion during the cycle to the 2026 finals.

That figure, released following the latest meeting of the AFC Marketing Committee, was up 291% on the previous qualifying campaign. Digital activity around the qualifiers added 161 million impressions, 100 million video views and 5.9 million engagements.

The numbers are cumulative rather than unique viewers, but the scale of the increase gives the AFC plenty to work with commercially – particularly as it works through the next stages of its rights strategy for the 2029-2036 cycle following a tender process earlier this year.

There was also a sizeable jump for the reshaped Asian club game.

The AFC Champions League Elite recorded a cumulative reach of 2.5 billion during 2025/26, an increase of 174%, while second-tier AFC Champions League Two climbed 323% to 916 million.

The AFC said sponsor activations and partner matchday experiences across the two competitions had also more than doubled.

That will be welcome evidence for a club competition structure which was ripped up and relaunched in 2024, replacing the old Champions League model with the Elite, Champions League Two and Challenge League tiers.

Women’s football produced smaller totals but strong growth of its own.

The 2026 Women’s Asian Cup in Australia was broadcast across 188 territories and recorded a cumulative reach of 291 million, with the AFC putting the increase at 34%.

The AFC Women’s Champions League, only launched in 2024/25, grew 147% in its second season to reach 20.3 million, while the U20 Women’s Asian Cup reached 30 million, up 92%.

The Marketing Committee also reviewed preparations for the 2027 Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia, including its recently unveiled tournament identity, as well as changes to the AFC Awards.

The branding exercises will attract the usual marketing attention, but the audience figures are the more useful currency.

With another long commercial rights cycle approaching, the AFC can now point to significant growth not only around its World Cup qualifiers, but across competitions it has spent the past two years rebuilding and repackaging.

Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at [email protected]