World Cup Group Stage Delivers Record U.S. Audience for Fox, Telemundo

The FIFA men’s World Cup is every bit of the viewership behemoth it was expected to be—and then some—as full audience data from the tournament’s group stage now attests. 

Fox, the event’s English-language rights holder in the U.S., said that the entire group stage averaged 5.05 million viewers across the broadcast network, FS1, and the Tubi streaming service. That figure is up 92% from the 2022 event, which was held in the late fall that year due to heat issues in Qatar, and represents the highest group-stage viewership in U.S. history. 

Telemundo, the Spanish-language rights holder, posted an even bigger viewership leap from four years ago. That network’s average group-stage audience of 4.6 million soared 122% compared to 2022, and also represents a record for the World Cup’s group stage. While U.S. Hispanics are 20% of the American population, the NBCUniversal-controlled Telemundo has captured 48% of the total domestic audience for the World Cup.

The viewership figures from the entire group stage provide further confirmation of the bullish numbers seen for many individual matches in the tournament’s initial weeks. Among the additional milestones recorded during the group stage:

• The opening match for the U.S. men’s national team on June 12 against Paraguay averaged 18.04 million viewers on Fox, according to final data from Nielsen. That represented the most-watched World Cup match involving the U.S. men’s team in English-language U.S. broadcast history. The U.S. team’s latter two group-stage matches, against Türkiye and Australia, rounded out the three most-watched tournament broadcasts on Fox so far, averaging 17 million viewers and 16.2 million viewers, respectively. 
• Fox said it generated 4.53 billion views across its digital and social platforms during the group stage, making it the most socially viewed event in Fox Sports history.
• Telemundo saw its biggest viewership for matches involving the Mexican team, with a June 18 match against South Korea averaging 14 million viewers. That also set a record for the most-watched soccer broadcast in Spanish-language U.S. history. Mexico’s other two group-stage matches ranked second and third in individual match audience for Telemundo. 
• Telemundo generated 39.9 billion total minutes of consumption, when including companion coverage on Universo, Peacock, and Telemundo streaming. That figure is 50% larger than the combined group-stage consumption from 2022 and the 2018 FIFA men’s World Cup in Russia. 

Beyond the lofty performance compared to prior World Cups, the latest iteration is also dominating the rest of sports media. During the week of June 15–21, the World Cup captured 24 of the 25 largest sports broadcast audiences in the U.S. Only the final round of golf’s U.S. Open on June 21 broke the World Cup streak, coming in at No. 13 for the week. 

The ongoing World Cup knockout round will almost certainly generate even larger audiences for both Fox and Telemundo. That’s particularly true with Mexico already advancing to the Round of 16 with a Tuesday victory over Ecuador, and the U.S. team still alive as well. The Americans will face Bosnia and Herzegovina in a Wednesday primetime matchup for U.S. viewers that is well positioned to deliver another banner figure for Fox. 

While the U.S. must win that game, and then three others, to reach the July 19 final, Fox believes that deciding match could reach 50 million average viewers if that happens.