Johannesburg - More than 10 million television viewers in South Africa watched the host nation play Mexico to open the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
FIFA says 87 percent of people watching television at home in South Africa last Friday tuned in for SABC1 and SuperSport 3 broadcasts of the 1-1 draw.
That's nearly three million more viewers than South Africa's highest-rating sports broadcast last year, when Bafana Bafana played Brazil in the Confederations Cup.
FIFA said on Monday an average of almost one in five Mexicans with a television at home watched last Friday's opener.
In the United States, Spanish-language channel Univision averaged 5.4 million viewers - double its audience from when Germany opened the 2006 Soccer World Cup against Costa Rica.
