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The FIFA men’s World Cup is now officially drawing U.S. television audiences seen only during the NFL playoffs—and there’s even more on the horizon as the tournament continues to break new ground.
Fox said late Monday that it averaged 26.4 million viewers for its English-language coverage of the U.S. men’s national team victory on July 1 over Bosnia and Herzegovina. That’s up from the preliminary figure of 24.4 million viewers released late last week. Telemundo, meanwhile, reported a final average figure of 9.8 million viewers for its Spanish-language presentation of the match.
Put together, that means the U.S. team’s round-of-32 victory averaged 36.2 million viewers, and the latest data incorporates Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel methodology that is now “currency” in the television business. The final viewership figure approaches the 39.2 million viewer average for the NFL’s divisional playoffs this past season, and represents the largest U.S. television audience on any network since Super Bowl LX in February.
Over the weekend, Fox president of analytics and insights Mike Mulvihill promised that “people are going to be floored” by the final viewership figures. To that end, the match is now the most-watched English-language soccer telecast in U.S. history, and the most-watched Spanish-language match involving the U.S. men’s national team.
The U.S.–Bosnia and Herzegovina match also represented a further amplification from record-level audiences seen on Fox and Telemundo during the World Cup group stage.
Looking Ahead
The milestones from the U.S.–Bosnia and Herzegovina broadcasts, however, will be very short lived.
Based on what was achieved last week, Monday night’s coverage of the American team’s round-of-16 match against Belgium is set to push beyond 40 million in the combined audience across Fox and Telemundo. Like Sunday night’s England win over Mexico, a thriller played in Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium, the Monday broadcast was also scheduled in primetime for maximum exposure.
As a result, the match could even challenge the average of 47.4 million viewers seen for January’s NFL conference championship games.
Adding further to the World Cup viewer draw is the ongoing controversy surrounding U.S. striker Folarin Balogun. FIFA suspended on Sunday the one-game red-card ban, making Balogun eligible for Monday’s match, with U.S. President Donald Trump calling on FIFA president Gianni Infantino to review the penalty.
FIFA then dismissed a subsequent challenge from Belgium on Monday regarding the decision allowing Balogun to play.
