Naver's streaming platform Chzzk has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of the 2026 World Cup, drawing record-breaking traffic. With the South Korean national team's group-stage matches scheduled during weekday daytime hours, viewers flocked to Chzzk, which allows easy viewing on smartphones at workplaces and schools. Analysts say Naver's bet in securing exclusive online and mobile broadcasting rights for the World Cup has paid off.
Naver said Thursday that the peak number of concurrent viewers watching the South Korea-Czech Republic match held that morning reached 4.82 million across Chzzk's official broadcasting channel and "Watch Together" broadcasts. The figure is more than six times the previous record of 760,000 concurrent viewers set during the broadcast of the "2025 League of Legends (LoL) World Championship."
Naver had earlier secured exclusive domestic new media broadcasting rights for the FIFA World Cup from 2026 to 2032 through a contract with Joongang Group. As a result, among domestic online platforms, Chzzk is solely responsible for the live broadcast of all matches at this North and Central American World Cup.
There had been concerns that viewership for this World Cup would be low because major matches were concentrated during weekday morning hours due to the time difference. Instead, it created a major boom for Chzzk, thanks to its strength of allowing easy access anytime and anywhere via PC and smartphone. On online communities, users have poured out responses such as "I installed the Chzzk app for the first time to watch the World Cup," reflecting a strong effect in attracting new members.
The "Watch Together" service, which lets users watch matches alongside popular streamers, also served as a driving force behind the success. Chzzk is providing various versions of "Watch Together" broadcasts in collaboration with major creator channels including Han Dong-suk, Wolf, Shoot for Love, Esta TV, Channel 15ya and Plave. In particular, streamer Han Dong-suk's "Watch Together" broadcast drew as many as 360,000 viewers. This is the result of skillfully tapping into the so-called "community-style viewing culture," in which users communicate and cheer in real time with their preferred streamers.
"Even amid the massive traffic of 4.82 million peak concurrent viewers, we effectively distributed server loads and maintained a stable viewing environment," a Chzzk official said. "This community-style viewing culture will serve as an opportunity to spread beyond games to sports content as a whole."
