European soccer is growing by leaps and bounds in the United States. According to ESPN, Sunday’s Euro 2012 Final between Italy and Spain set a record as the most-watched European Football Championship game in United States history.

The match was seen by an average audience of 4.068 million viewers in 2.699 million average television households, based on a 2.4 U.S. household rating – up eight percent in viewers (3.761 million), six percent in households (2.552 million) and four percent in ratings (2.3) vs. the previous high, Spain vs. Germany in EURO 2008 final on ABC (Sunday, June 29).

Plus, the Italy-Spain final was the most watched sport event on cable last week.

The top 10 metered markets for Sunday’s Final were: Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (6.5), New York (5.8), Los Angeles (4.9), San Francisco (4.4), Austin, Texas (4.4), San Diego (4.4), Dallas-Ft. Worth (4.2), Providence, R.I. (4.1), Richmond, Va. (3.9), and Las Vegas (3.4).

Throughout the 31 matches of the three-week tournament, ESPN’s live English-language TV presentation delivered an average of 993,000 households and 1,300,000 viewers — up 51 percent in households and viewers, respectively, versus 31 matches in 2008 (657,000 households and 859,000 viewers). In addition, EURO 2012 featured seven of the top 10 audiences for the two tournaments on ESPN networks (2008 and 2012).

The top 10 metered markets throughout the tournament (31 matches): New York (2.1), Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (2.0), Providence (1.7), Los Angeles (1.5), San Francisco (1.4), Washington, DC (1.4), Las Vegas (1.3), Richmond, Va. (1.3), Austin (1.3) and San Diego (1.3).

ESPN Deportes scores highest-rated, most-watched telecast with EURO 2012 Final:

The Spain-Italy final delivered the network’s highest-rated and most-watched telecast ever with a 12.9 Hispanic household coverage rating, 700,000 Hispanic household impressions and 1,125,000 Hispanic viewers – up 28 percent compared to ESPN Deportes coverage of the UEFA EURO 2008 final (10.1). The final is also the second highest-rated European soccer match ever on a Spanish-language sports cable network.

Through the tournament, 5.25 million people (P2+) tuned into live coverage of EURO 2012 on ESPN Deportes, a 24 percent increase from the 4.24 million people in 2008.

The 27 live EURO 2012 matches that aired on ESPN Deportes, averaged a 4.2 Hispanic household coverage rating, with 220,000 impressions and 324,000 viewers – up 50 percent, 120 percent and 138 percent, respectively, versus 26 live matches in 2008 (2.8 Hispanic household coverage rating, 100,000 households and 136,000 viewers).

ESPN Digital Platforms:

On ESPN3 and WatchESPN across computers, smartphones, tablets and Xbox, the final logged an average minute audience of 194,097 and 563,000 unique viewers. Additionally, fans consumed 30.9 million live minutes to both English and Spanish language feeds across platforms.

EURO 2012 Overall – Through 24 days of tournament play, ESPNFC.com and ESPNsoccernet.com generated an average of 919,000 unique visitors, 3.5 million page views per day and 12.7 million minutes per day. Compared to ESPNsoccernet.com for EURO 2008, the site is up 35 percent, 35 percent and 205 percent, respectively. In total, ESPNFC.com, ESPNsoccernet.com and ESPNdeportes.com logged 90.2 million total page views during EURO 2012, up 38 percent compared to 2008.

Across computers, smartphones, tablets and Xbox on ESPN3 and WatchESPN, EURO 2012 logged 450.5 million total live minutes, up 871 percent compared to EURO 2008 on computers alone. Additionally, across all platforms and languages, EURO 2012 on ESPN3 and WatchESPN averaged 289,000 unique viewers per match with an average minute audience of 96,102.