After Wang Yi sank what might have been the most difficult game-winning three-pointer in Finals history, the entire arena erupted as if a bomb had just gone off.
The deafening cheers made it seem as though the roof of the Anta Center would be blown off in an instant.
The roar seemed ready to erupt like a volcano, burst through the roof, and spread to the surrounding area, across all of Toronto, and throughout Canada.
No one knew yet whether Wang Yi's game-winner had beaten the buzzer, but the crowd cheered first anyway.
Yet amid the crowd's cheers, nothing had been settled.
The referee signaled to the scorer's table, indicating that he wanted to review the footage to determine whether the shot had beaten the buzzer.
The spectators' hearts leaped into their throats once again.
Even though the game was over, their hearts were still hanging in the balance. That only happened when a game came down to a buzzer-beater.
At that moment, more than fifty million people around the world were staring at their screens, anxiously waiting for the result.
As the game went on, more and more viewers flooded into the livestreams.
By now, the total number of viewers across all livestreams worldwide had reached more than fifty million.
Note: that was the number of people watching in real time, not the total number of views.
If we were talking about total views, the number had already reached 230 million.
Such a spectacle was exceedingly rare in the world of sports.
Meanwhile, in China,
many teachers had skipped class and were watching the game with their students right in the classroom.
Many universities had organized viewings in their auditoriums.
Many companies had arranged for their employees to watch the game at movie theaters.
Even people who didn't care