According to the survey conducted by the Mediascope research company, a total of 5,309,000 people aged 4 and older watched the live broadcast of the ceremony from Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium.

The company added that the broadcast’s general coverage, which represents all Russians who watched the ceremony for at least one minute, was over 8.5 million people.

Just over 2.6 million Russians watched the opening ceremony of the previous World Cup in Brazil.

The World Cup kicked off on 14 June and will continue through 15 July, with the games set to be held in 11 cities across Russia.