Awarded to Qatar in 2010, the 2022 Football World Cup was the first major international sports events to be held in a country in the Gulf region. This World Cup was the most expensive ever recorded, with investments of approximately 210 billion euros, 20 times more than the sums invested by Russia for the 2018 edition. The 2022 World Cup was part of the Qatar 2030 strategy and generated significant investments in the Qatar region. It was also one of the most profitable international sports events in world history, generating over €17M in economic returns.
Despite the controversy surrounding the event, it saw record numbers of attendance, with over 3,400,000 spectators from across the world coming to watch matches. These supporters included nearly 2 million supporters from abroad who visited Qatar to watch the competition. Several new records were also set for viewership, with more than 1.5 billion people watching the final live.