SWC opener draws 10m viewers

Johannesburg - More than 10 million television viewers in South Africa watched the host nation play Mexico to open the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

GALLERY: South Africa v Mexico

FIFA says 87 percent of people watching television at home in South Africa last Friday tuned in for SABC1 and SuperSport 3 broadcasts of the 1-1 draw.

That's nearly three million more viewers than South Africa's highest-rating sports broadcast last year, when Bafana Bafana played Brazil in the Confederations Cup.

FIFA said on Monday an average of almost one in five Mexicans with a television at home watched last Friday's opener.

In the United States, Spanish-language channel Univision averaged 5.4 million viewers - double its audience from when Germany opened the 2006 Soccer World Cup against Costa Rica.