Chelsea's Club World Cup Opener Draws More UK Viewers than Love Island

There were a reported 48,863 empty seats in the stadium as Chelsea defeated LAFC, but the TV viewing figures back in the UK exceeded expectations.

Channel 5 purchased the rights to air 23 Club World Cup games from DAZN. They are the smallest of the UK's linear TV networks and on a good day attract audiences of about half a million viewers and a 5% share of the UK's TV viewing.

But last night 920,000 tuned in to watch the Chelsea game in preliminary overnight viewing figures, the equivalent of a 9% share. That placed it well above rival broadcaster Channel 4 and made it competitive against the UK's broadcast giants BBC1 and ITV. 

It even out-rated popular ITV drama Shardlake (890,000 viewers). It's especially impressive as the game also clashed and beat ITV2's wildly popular Love Island (870,000 viewers).

However much fans may scorn the tournament...they also crave live football and Chelsea fans were clearly keen to get a first look at new signing, Liam Delap. It bodes well for the rest of the tournament and the bigger games to come.