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Referring to Donald Trump's inauguration, the White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, claimed

This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. Both in person and around the globe. (Sources: video footage, BBC News)

Spicer later clarified:

He said he had been including television and online viewers in his remarks on Saturday about the size of the inauguration crowd.

Is this true?

Oddthinking
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lemon
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  • @Basic It's right, there is not US based in the quote. However, the problem with the comment I'm responding right now is that there are actually many interpretations possible of the statement, if one wants to be really precise. There are many more than it seems. Look, you can have the largest audience in TV, or in person (you can "witness" the inauguration by TV or in person). Now, I don't have time to see if the rest of the context allows to tell wich of the things he is reffferenring too. Also, are TV viewers outside USA counted? Do only US based or foreign based inaugurations count? – Santropedro Jan 23 '17 at 23:24
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    I think our best bet here is to answer all possible meanings of the claim. There aren't that many and we can easily answer them all. (Except the global audience for which figures are not yet available. We can add them in when they are). – DJClayworth Jan 23 '17 at 23:27
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    It's possible that both (1) it was the largest inauguration crowd and (2) the majority in the crowd were protesters. – user2338816 Jan 29 '17 at 09:28
  • "Is this true?" - that he was intending to include television and online viewers in his original claim (vs. scrambling to put a better face on it once the ridicule started pouring in)? No. :D – PoloHoleSet Jun 21 '17 at 16:37

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No, at least not in person.

DC Metro reports lower ridership numbers compared to 2013 and 2009. This is significant because DC metro is used heavily and with many streets closed for the inauguration, it's the primary means of transportation for those who want to attend.

The national park service retweeted a now infamous picture on twitter comparing the 2009 and 2017 crows which seems to show much smaller number of people for Trumps inauguration. The tweet has been deleted since.

Another thing to look at is the inauguration parade. Here is a video of the Obama parade and a video before the Trump parade.

In terms of "around the globe" - this article by Snopes, cites the Nielsen Company according to which 31 million Americans watched Trump's inauguration and thus ranks 5th in terms of TV viewership.

Obviously, the US is not the world, so it's possible that the viewership was higher in other countries thus making up the shortfall in US viewership, but that seems unlikely due to a number of reasons.

Crowd estimation is very subjective and could be controversial so this might be the best data we can get. I think it's fair to say this was probably not the largest inauguration crowd ever.

SleepingGod
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ventsyv
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    How about online viewers? [Here are some 2009 numbers](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jan/22/barack-obama-inauguration-web-traffic-soars). For 2017, we only have [CNN](http://ew.com/tv/2017/01/21/trump-inauguration-ratings/) so far (16.9 million streams on CNN in 2017, compared to 21.3 million in 2009.) – ff524 Jan 24 '17 at 00:05
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    As far as I know no worldwide viewing figures are available. Which means that there is a small chance that Spicer may turn out to be right. Although you would have to wonder how he knew, if there were no figures... – DJClayworth Jan 24 '17 at 01:09
  • "The national park service which traditionally estimates event attendance" not since 1995. This paragraph strikes me as misleading; it implies that the photo is somehow related to NPS estimating crowd size decades ago (it isn't). NPS in general is not really relevant here. – ff524 Jan 24 '17 at 02:48
  • I thought they still did that... OK I'll adjust the answer – ventsyv Jan 24 '17 at 02:57
  • Important: even if online views did made a record, they should be taken with a grain of salt, because for example in 2009 at obama inauguration internet streaming speed was much lower, people watching events trough internet was lower because it was a new thing, and even more in undeveloped countries outsidr USA. – Santropedro Jan 24 '17 at 03:53
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    @Santropedro That may be, but they are still views, no? Isnt that kind of like arguing that Trump's crowd was smaller, but we should take that with a grain of salt since it was rainy? No matter the reason, there were fewer people in person for Trump but maybe more online, depending on how the numbers turn out. – Matt Jan 25 '17 at 03:12
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    @Matt I agree. We should look at raw numbers not otherwise we'll find ourselves adjusting for the weather, population growth, etc etc to no end – ventsyv Jan 25 '17 at 03:16
  • @Matt Yes I agree with you, I was aware at the writing of my comment of that, I tried to reveal that (but failed obviously) by writing "Important:" at the beggining , in which I try to say "take this also into account, but only into account, not definite". Well, it doesn't matter now, it's better the way you say. – Santropedro Jan 25 '17 at 04:05
  • @Matt - not sure how you'd quantify a stream to an IP address played on a display in a bar with 50 people drinking beers for an inauguration watching party vs. a single viewer in their room/apartment. – PoloHoleSet Jun 20 '17 at 19:11
  • @PoloHoleSet Well you said it yourself, one is 50 views and one is one view. Just because these views are difficult or impossible to measure doesn't make them not views. The answer is we can't know for sure. – Matt Jun 22 '17 at 16:20
  • @Matt - my point is that the 50 views and 1 view look identical if we're collecting data, because they're both a single stream to a location. I'm not saying they're not views, just that there isn't much point to trying to measure that unless there is some sort of specific data collection method built for it (like Nielsen ratings, for instance). – PoloHoleSet Jun 22 '17 at 17:06