17.5 million Nigerians tuned into television broadcasts to watch their national team take on Iran in this week’s FIFA football world cup clash in Brazil.

This is according to real-time mobile survey service GeoPoll, which started gathering television audience data in Africa earlier this month.

GeoPoll’s television audience ratings cover Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda: countries with a combined population of 300 million.

Data for television rankings is gathered via mobile surveys in these countries. GeoPoll also collects a minimum of 2,000 responses daily per country, polling a different subset every four hours.

And on Monday night, millions of Nigerians and other Africans watched Nigeria draw 0-0 with Iran on television.

“The game between Nigeria and Iran, played during prime time in Nigeria, drew 17.5 million Nigerian adult viewers or 20% of the Nigerian adult population,” says GeoPoll in a press statement.

“More than 25 million adults from all the surveyed African nations watched the Nigeria game, making it the most watched game in these markets over the first five days of play,” says GeoPoll.

Other statistics from GeoPoll suggest that in Nigeria the football world cup television viewership is split with 38% being women and 62% constituting men.

GeoPoll says in its statement that it plans running surveys throughout the duration of the world cup.