MIES (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers) - Eleven new qualified teams, the continued support of dedicated and passionate fans all around the world and a digital presence growing stronger in the lead-up to the first-ever 32-team FIBA Basketball World Cup - the fifth window of the Qualifiers for China 2019 certainly had a bit of everything to offer.

With more than 200,000 downloads to date, the FIBA Basketball World Cup app - available in Chinese, English, French, Greek, Japanese, Spanish and Turkish - has become the N°1 sports app in 13 markets: Angola, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Philippines, Qatar, Senegal, Uruguay and Turks and Caicos.

Use of the app played a part in helping set a record of 91 million video views reached in this window, the highest amount achieved to date in a single window since the World Cup Qualifiers tipped off in November 2017.

Meanwhile, in the venues, fans continued to turn out in huge number to support their respective teams. The biggest crowds were found in Asia, where Philippines played both of their games at home, bringing in crowds of more than 14,700 on both occasions. China drew 11,000 spectators for their clash against Hong Kong. In the Americas, where over 71 percent of tickets for the window were sold, Uruguay and Argentina, like Philippines, hosted both of their fixtures, with on average 10,000 spectators attending the games. In Europe, a 70 percent average arena occupancy was registered, with the biggest crowd being the 9,482 spectators who packed Ankara Arena to witness Turkey take on Spain.

Last but not least, similarly to what happened between the third (June-July) and fourth (September) windows, an additional 1 million fans are now following the @FIBAWC accounts on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Weibo. During the fifth window, the milestone of 1 million followers has been reached on Weibo.

With the African Qualifiers returning to Angola in the fifth window, the viral sensation from the first window returned and once again had his moments on and off the court, generating  more than 2 million views.

 
Fans around the world have been invited to embody the #ThisIsMyHouse campaign by showing how they are supporting their country on Social Media and the response has been great from people for all participating countries.

The 11 latest teams to punch their ticket to basketball's biggest event bring to 18 the number of known participants. It also means that 26 teams will do battle for the remaining 14 places in the sixth and final window of the Qualifiers.

See you in February 2019 for the final chapter of the World Cup Qualifiers!

FIBA