ESPN has been hyping the World Cup for weeks, showing video from venues across the country where large crowds have gathered to watch the US play.

But it's a mirage. Only about 17% of Americans are showing interest in the World Cup soccer matches as opposed to 21% who are following the IRS lost emails story and 26% following events in Iraq.

Pew Research:

So far, the growing crisis in Iraq has not drawn strong interest from the American public. As Sunni militants extend their control of large swaths of Iraq, 25% say they are paying very close attention to the growing violence and political instability in Iraq. By comparison, 28% of Americans surveyed June 26-29 say they followed news about problems with care at veterans’ hospitals very closely and 21% paid very close attention to news about the IRS losing employee emails.

The new national survey by the Pew Research Center conducted among 1,002 adults finds that fewer Americans tracked news about the World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil (17%), the 2014 midterms (16%) and recent Supreme Court rulings (15%). (The survey was conducted before the court’s Hobby Lobby decision.)

Young people typically express lower levels of interest in news stories than older Americans, and the age differences are striking when it comes to Washington news and violence in Iraq. Just 13% of those younger than 30, and 19% of those 30-49, say they tracked news about Iraq very closely. That compares with 36% of those 65 and older and 34% of those 50 to 64.

However, the World Cup is a different story. About a quarter (24%) of those under 30 say they are closely following the World Cup – making it by far the story they express the most interest in. Young people are more likely than older age groups to be closely following the World Cup.

It makes sense that younger people would find the World Cup nearly twice as interesting as events in Iraq. First, there's no app for Iraq, and secondly, anything that happens further than 100 feet from their iphone doesn't pique their interest. Maybe if Netflix made a series out of Iraq...

In truth, the low information voter doesn't care about any of it. After all, how do you think President Obama got elected twice?