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The World Cup audience for the U.S. Men’s National Team just keeps getting bigger.
Fox reported a preliminary figure of 24.4 million viewers for Wednesday night’s match between the U.S. and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Meanwhile, Spanish-language partner Telemundo announced an early figure of 9.1 million viewers on its platform.
These numbers are not the official figures because they do not include Nielsen’s fairly recent Big Data methodology, which includes information from sources such as set-top boxes and smart TVs. The full rating is not expected until Monday, a spokesperson for Fox confirmed to Front Office Sports.
Both networks have seen massive numbers for the U.S. matches, but Wednesday’s primetime clash takes the cake. Fox said its audience peaked at about 31.9 million viewers. These figures are setting records for soccer audiences, with Fox announcing the preliminary number as the most-watched English-language soccer broadcast in U.S. history, and Telemundo saying it’s “on track” to become the biggest Spanish-language audience for a U.S. soccer match.
Wednesday night was the first U.S. match of the knockout rounds, in the new Round of 32 created this year as part of the expanded 48-team World Cup. After striker Folarin Balogun put the U.S. up 1–0, he received a controversial red card early in the second half, and the team had to play with a man down for the rest of the match. But the U.S. handled the pressure, and Malik Tillman drove a free kick home that sealed the 2–0 victory.
The other three U.S. matches in the group stage saw:
- 18 million viewers on Fox and 7.0 million viewers on Telemundo against Paraguay on June 12.
- 16.2 million viewers on Fox and 6.8 million viewers on Telemundo against Australia on June 19.
- 17 million viewers on Fox and 7.4 million viewers on Telemundo against Turkey on June 25.
A major driver of the numbers is out-of-home viewership, such as bars and watch parties, which Nielsen didn’t include in its audience metrics until 2020. Out-of-home viewership accounts for about a quarter of Fox and Telemundo’s World Cup audiences.
When Wednesday’s final numbers come in, Fox on its own will eclipse this year’s NBA Finals viewership on ABC. The series between the Knicks and Spurs averaged 20.6 million viewers, with Game 5 drawing the most at 24.5 million viewers.
The U.S. will next face Belgium in the Round of 16 in Seattle on Monday in a game that is also scheduled for primetime, with many online dubbing it Monday Night Football. With the increased stakes and another ideal timeslot for the U.S. audience, Fox and Telemundo can expect even higher viewership.
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