The research suggests evening matches have fared better with TV viewers than games shown in the afternoon.

After Brazil vs Croatia, the second most popular match was Italy vs Ghana, which attracted an average audience of 59 million.

England's victory over Paraguay in their first match attracted an average international audience of 29 million.

The study also shows the World Cup is attracting large numbers of viewers in countries that do not have teams in the tournament.

In Hungary, whose team last qualified in 1986, an average of 13% of the population watched every match during the first five days of the competition.

That beats the UK, where the average is 9%, and France, with 8% - although both of these figures are higher than for the 2002 World Cup.

In the UK, England's opening match was seen by 8.8 million people - a smaller audience than tuned in to see Arsenal lose to Barcelona in the Uefa Champion's League final last month.

BBC NEWS.