DStv breaks its live streaming record in South Africa
DStv Stream recorded more than 900,000 concurrent viewers during Bafana Bafana’s FIFA World Cup 2026 opener against Mexico on Thursday, the pay-TV broadcaster said.
The broadcaster said the match set a new live-sport streaming record for its platform, nearly doubling its previous peak of close to 500,000 viewers.
That previous high was recorded during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 final, making Thursday’s audience a significant jump for DStv’s streaming service.
The SABC, South Africa’s public broadcaster, also reported record-setting streaming viewership during the 2026 World Cup’s opening match.
Its streaming service, SABC+, suffered an outage, which was partly caused by a last-minute update to its platform and apps.
“A content encryption update had to be implemented on the SABC+ platform, which is a standard part of broadcasting major international sporting events,” the SABC said.
“This update required a reset of the platform’s functionalities, meaning some users needed to log in again.”
This resulted in a high volume of users attempting to log in and verify access simultaneously shortly before kick-off, which the SABC said placed unprecedented strain on the system.
“This resulted in system instability and a second reset before the platform was stabilised,” the state-owned company said.
“The scale of demand last night was unprecedented. SABC+ recorded a peak concurrency of 477,000 simultaneous users, nearly three times its previous record.”
Thursday’s match was also record-setting for being the World Cup opener with the most red cards in history. South Africa received two red cards, and Mexico one.
The match marked South Africa’s first World Cup appearance in 16 years and repeated the 2010 opening fixture between Bafana Bafana and Mexico.
That 2010 match in Johannesburg produced Siphiwe Tshabalala’s well-known opening goal. South Africa was the first African country to host a World Cup, and as the host nation, did not have to qualify.
DStv said its streaming figures reflected strong demand for football across Africa, with a record ten African nations competing at the 2026 tournament.
This was because FIFA had expanded the format to include 48 nations, up from the traditional 32-team format. It is also the first World Cup to be hosted across 3 countries: Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.
DStv added that making all 104 World Cup matches available on DStv Access, its cheapest package outside the basic EasyView service, was helping the tournament reach a broader audience.
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