While teams begin their preparations to face off against each other at the Brazil World Cup next year, it is the virtual environment where competition is already well underway.
Facebook and Twitter are battling fiercely to claim the highest number of mentions about the World Cup, while more than 100 apps around the football spectacular have already been developed, according to a report from Ticketbis.
While footie fans will have to wait until next summer to see if the hosts manage to win the trophy on home turf, the online ticket marketplace has already put Brazil in first place – for the number of Google searches it has accumulated since July, which numbers close to half a million.
Germany placed second with 77,000 searches while both the US and Canada beat the UK into second and third spot respectively, Britain completing the list of top four finishers.
Mobile apps charting the progress of important World Cup-related events now number more than 120 on Apple and Android, 80% of which are free, while Facebook and Twitter are vying for the most mentions around the event despite it not even being Christmas yet.
Ticketbis claims that two-thirds of Spanish speaking Facebook users talk about the event on the social network, with just 36% using Twitter to do so.
The trend is turned on its head when it comes to English speakers though, with 60% of such Twitter users talking about the World Cup, compared to 40% of Facebook users.
