As the curtain fell on the World Cup and team and player performances were analyzed across the world, The Nielsen Company looked at how the official FIFA website performed across a number of countries that participated in the tournament.

Yesterday’s World Cup Final between Spain and the Netherlands drew a total of 24.3 million U.S. viewers, making it the most watched soccer game in U.S. television history, according to The Nielsen Company.

According to Nielsen’s newly released Fourth Screen Network Audience Report for Q1 2010, health club networks drew 25% more monthly video exposures among adults 18+ compared to the fourth quarter of 2009.

An average of 9.9 million people in the U.S. watched LeBron James choose his next basketball destination, according to The Nielsen Company.

Social media usage has seen unprecedented growth in Asia Pacific in the past year and is now one of the most critical trends in the online sector, according to Nielsen’s Asia Pacific Social Media Report.

According to a week-long buzz study conducted by NM Incite, a Nielsen McKinsey Company, the New York Knicks, the Chicago Bulls, and the Cleveland Cavaliers have all been the most closely linked teams to King James for at least one day.

Although neither the the USA or England teams remain contenders for the World Cup, TV advertisers in the U.S. and U.K. appear to have scored with viewers…

A follow-up study by NM Incite, a Nielsen McKinsey Company, found that in the first two weeks of the tournament Adidas had overtaken Nike, accounting for 25.1% share of World Cup buzz online compared to 14.4% before the event. Nike, meanwhile, dropped from 30.2% to 19.4%.

After a weekend of two “blown” calls by referees in World Cup matches, Nielsen found that two out of three respondents (65 percent) to Nielsen’s online survey of 55 countries were in favor of a change. Only about one in 10 people globally said the ban on the use of video replays should stay, and the others didn’t mind either way.

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