World Cup TV Ratings Surge With U.S. Again in Competition

The move of the Men’s World Cup from its traditional summer berth to fall doesn’t seem to have hurt TV viewing in the United States — and the presence of the U.S. team in the tournament has definitely helped.

Through the first 35 group stage matches, Fox Sports is averaging just over 3 million viewers per game — a 38 percent improvement over the same time frame for the 2018 World Cup (2.18 million). Telemundo’s Spanish-language coverage is also drawing nearly 2.6 million viewers per contest on air and on Peacock and Telemundo streaming platforms.

The U.S. team failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, which resulted in lower TV ratings for Fox Sports, which had rights to the event for the first time, than ESPN tallied in 2014. Ratings have improved on 2018 even given the late fall start — amid a crowded sports calendar that includes the NFL, college football, the NBA and the NHL — along with concerns over host country Qatar’s record on human rights and the hundreds of worker deaths during construction of stadiums for the tournament.

The three group stage games involving the United States have brought in big audiences — including some 20 million across all platforms for the U.S.-England match Nov. 25. Fox’s 15.49 million viewers for the match is a record for any men’s soccer match on English-language TV in the United States, the network says. Telemundo’s coverage added 3.24 million on-air viewers for the match and an additional 1.27 million on streaming.

The 15.49 million viewers for Fox includes pre- and post-match coverage; the “whistle to whistle” audience for the match itself was 17.2 million, which would rank third among all men’s matches on English-language TV. ESPN claimed 18.2 million viewers for a U.S.-Portugal group stage game in 2014 and 17.3 million for the final that year, again for the match only. (With pre- and post-game coverage included, the U.S.-Portugal contest averaged 13.77 million viewers.)

The 17.2 million viewers for the U.S.-England match is as many as those who watched college football’s marquee game of Thanksgiving weekend, Michigan vs. Ohio State (17.14 million).

The all-time viewing record for a soccer match on a single network in the United States is 25.4 million for the Women’s World Cup final in 2015. The previous high for a men’s match, including pre- and post-match coverage, was the 1994 World Cup final at 14.51 million. (Prior World Cup averages also don’t include out-of-home viewing, which Nielsen added to its ratings tallies in 2020.)

The U.S. opener against Wales delivered 7.76 million viewers on Fox and 2.29 million on Telemundo. Monday’s U.S. victory over Iran, which put the team into the knockout rounds, brought in 12.01 million viewers on Fox (Telemundo figures weren’t immediately available). The three U.S. games averaged 11.71 million viewers for Fox, the best showing ever for the USMNT on English language TV and up 10 percent from 2014 (which, again, didn’t include out-of-home viewing).

Subtracting the three U.S. matches from the total would put the World Cup about even with 2018 at 2.19 million viewers per game on Fox.

Aside from the U.S. matches, the two biggest draws in the first week of the tournament were Argentina versus Mexico (6.31 million viewers on Telemundo, 4.13 million on FS1) and Brazil versus Serbia (6.19 million on Fox, 4.16 million on Telemundo), both of which topped 10 million viewers. Telemundo says it averaged an additional 2 million-plus viewers for Argentina-Mexico on its streaming platform and Peacock, while Fox had 346,000 on streaming.

Dec. 1, 12:50 p.m.: Updated with additional ratings figures for group stage games and match-only ratings for U.S.-England.