It was two decades ago

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 Is soccer just less boring than it was two decades ago, or have Americans finally come around to what's by far the most popular sport in FIFA Coins the rest of the world? There are several possible answers -- some more nuanced than others -- all coalescing to achieve critical mass for FIFA fever in the U.S.   The Twitter Effect Let’s start with all those FIFA-related tweets. (Lookup #goooal for further reference.) For the past two years or so, there has been some debate among media insiders about the extent to which social media chatter really affects television ratings. No one denies that tweets and status updates correlate with popular television events. (Super Bowls and Oscar telecasts typically dominate the topics of Twitter’s trending sidebar as they air.) But correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causation, and critics contend that social media activity merely reflects people’s interest in shows they’re already watching.Count Alan Wurtzel, NBCUniversal’s head of research, among the skeptics. Earlier this year, he told the Financial Times that, after studying the social media activity around NBC’s Winter Olympics programming, he found that TV ratings weren't likely to increase when more people tweeted about TV events. “I am saying the emperor wears no clothes,” he said in a much-aggregated comment.The Nielsen Company disagrees, however. According to a study it commissioned in 2013, Twitter chatter doesn’t just correlate with TV viewership -- it influences it. Sure, people tweet about what they’re watching on TV, but the relationship works both ways. People reading those tweets might be interested enough to tune in to see what the fuss is about. “[A] spike in TV ratings can increase the volume of tweets, and, conversely, a spike in tweets can increase tune-in,” Paul Donato, Nielsen’s chief research officer, said in a statement at the time. Looks like he was on to something.More StreamingIf technology is the answer to all our problems (as Silicon Valley would like us to believe), then chalk up “watching soccer without a television set” as one more problem it has solved. Internet streaming is a booming industry compared to what it was four years ago, and U.S. soccer fans have more options for enjoying live streams of the FIFA games on their computers and mobile devices. According to ESPN, nearly half a million people streamed Sunday’s FIFA game alone. And American viewers can also stream the FIFA games via BBC Sport, ITV or the Spanish-language Univision. “This will be the biggest, broadest and most high-tech FIFA coverage ever," Juan Carlos Rodriguez, president of Univision Deportes, told Variety.Hot Soccer FIFA 15 playersThe myriad of listicles featuring the “Hottest FIFA 15 players” has invited some interesting analysis on gender politics and whether the objectification of male athletes adds a fitting balance to an American media typically glutton with straight-male fantasies. Either way, it’s hard to imagine all those memes featuring Cristiano Ronaldo running around shirtless have hurt ratings. BuzzFeed has a comprehensive roundup of the hottest of the hot here.Expanding Latin American PopulationHomegrown soccer may be a relatively recent development in the U.S., but elsewhere in the world -- certainly in Central and South America -- even your great-grandfather likely grew up as a fan of the sport. And as the Latin American population has increased in the U.S., so has the enthusiasm for soccer. In 2012, the Hispanic population had grown to 53 million, which represented a 50 percent increase since 2000, and it continues to grow.More Regular Season Soccer FansIn 2013, NBC bought the rights to air all 380 English Premiere League matches -- the league of the FIFA 15 ultimate team, which launched the career and worldwide fame of David Beckham, the only soccer FIFA 15 player most any American can identify.