The World Cup has commenced with a record-breaking viewership for both Fox Sports and Telemundo. Fox Sports reported that the U.S. Soccer Men’s National Team’s victory over Paraguay on Friday attracted nearly 16 million viewers, marking it as the most-watched USMNT World Cup broadcast in the history of English-language television.
Telemundo, on the other hand, announced that Thursday’s match where Mexico triumphed over South Africa drew 12.1 million viewers, setting a new record as the most-watched World Cup game in Spanish-language television history.
The U.S.-Paraguay game on Friday, held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, averaged 15,986,000 viewers across Fox, Fox One, and Tubi. Viewership reached a peak of 18.86 million at 10:45 p.m. ET. Additionally, it became the most-streamed USMNT match in English, with 1.13 million viewers tuning in via Tubi.
The U.S.’s 4-1 victory over Paraguay represented a 106% increase from Fox’s first 2022 Men’s World Cup USMNT group stage broadcast, which had 7.76 million viewers for the match against Wales on November 21, 2022.
On Spanish-language platforms, Friday’s U.S.-Paraguay match also set records. It averaged 8.9 million viewers across Telemundo, Peacock, and Telemundo’s streaming services, becoming the most-watched USMNT World Cup match in Spanish-language history. It also achieved the highest viewership for a World Cup group stage match not featuring Mexico in Spanish-language history.
Similar to Fox, Telemundo experienced a significant increase compared to the Wales match in 2022, with viewership rising by 156% from 3.5 million viewers then.
The Mexico vs. South Africa match on Thursday, where Mexico secured a 2-0 win, was not only the most-watched World Cup game in Spanish-language history but also the most-streamed Mexico World Cup match and group stage match in Spanish-language history.
This game also became the most-watched World Cup opening match ever, regardless of language, and set the record for the most-watched World Cup group stage game not featuring the U.S. team, regardless of language.
The World Cup coverage is set to continue on Saturday night with matches featuring Haiti vs. Scotland at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT and Australia vs. Türkiye at 11 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. PT.
