( CNN ) -- Well , it was big . The Michael Jackson memorial service , where daughter Paris spoke briefly , was a big draw on TV and online . The biggest ever ? Probably not . Tuesday 's memorial service for Michael Jackson was expected to set some high marks for viewership -- and it did . But , based on information gathered by various meter-readers , it was no moon landing or Princess Diana funeral -- events whose audiences , by some reckonings , pushed 1 billion viewers . In the United States , the Jackson memorial aired during the late morning and afternoon , when most people are working . Nielsen , the television ratings service , said that 31.1 million watched : not as many as the Obama inauguration ( 38 million ) but more than the 2009 `` American Idol '' finale ( 28.8 million ) . In all or in part , the program was aired on 19 U.S. television networks . In Europe , where the show aired in prime time , the memorial service also did well . The BBC reported that 5.2 million people watched the show on the network BBC2 , and 2 million more watched on the British networks Five and Sky News . The service also aired on channels in Germany , France , Australia and Japan , testifying to the King of Pop 's worldwide reach . But it was the Internet where the Jackson memorial really hit the heights . Global Web traffic ranged from 19 percent to 33 percent above normal during the event , according to Internet monitoring firm Akamai Technologies . CNN.com reported 9.7 million live video streams between midnight and 5 p.m. PT , as well as 81 million page views , according to internal data . Yahoo News had 5 million live video streams , according to the publication Media Life . The publication also reported that FoxNews.com and MSNBC.com combined for 6.4 million video streams . Anecdotally , Jackson also fared well . Jackson-related topics were highly ranked on Twitter , Google Trends and Alexa . Facebook , which partnered with CNN.com to let friends and family share commentary during the service , reported 800,000 status updates by 1 million users . The Obama inauguration , by contrast , had 600,000 status updates during the event , though there were 1.5 million for the day of the inauguration , according to TechCrunch . Jackson does outrank the president as the most popular person on Facebook , with 7.7 million fans , versus 6.4 million for Obama . In Los Angeles , the Jackson memorial proved to be less of a draw than locals had hoped -- or feared . Though the city staffed the area around the Staples Center , where the memorial was held , with 3,000 police officers -- 1,000 more than had been on hand for the Los Angeles Lakers ' victory parade -- the crowd without tickets may have numbered in the thousands , according to unofficial estimates , and not the hundreds of thousands that had been feared . Even inside the memorial , which was held at the Staples Center and the adjacent Nokia Theatre , not every seat of the 20,000 available appeared to be taken , according to CNN observations . The Jackson memorial also drew hundreds of fans , respectively , to gatherings in New York 's Times Square , Detroit 's Motown Historical Museum , London 's O2 Arena and a Tokyo Tower Records store . Jackson is still reigning on the music charts . According to Nielsen SoundScan , the singer had the two best-selling albums in the United States last week -- `` Thriller '' and `` Number Ones '' -- and 13 of the top 20 catalog albums . On iTunes , he has four of the top 10 songs on iTunes and four of the top 10 albums . Finally , where there 's a big event , there 's at least a little money to be made off the spectacle . At the Staples Center on Tuesday , vendors sold Michael Jackson T-shirts , artwork , decals and even beverages . For the real spectacle , though , one must turn to eBay , where there were at least 50,000 Michael Jackson-related items up for auction as of Wednesday afternoon . Among them : 1984 Topps trading cards ( $ 15.50 ) , official memorial service programs ( from $ 2.99 to at least $ 10,000 , some with wristbands and tickets ) and even Web domain names -- one of which , MichaelJacksonForestLawnCemetery.com , can be yours for $ 650,000 . The Jackson magic may have been dominant Tuesday , but someone is obviously expecting it to continue for quite some time longer .
Michael Jackson memorial watched by 31.1 million in U.S. Show was a huge hit on Web , with traffic spiking up to 33 percent . On eBay , Jackson items included programs from memorial service .