Mexico’s second round victory over Korea drew a combined 11.037 million viewers to FOX and Telemundo, making it the most-watched match of the World Cup thus far. It was also Telemundo’s most-watched match with 6.6 million viewers tuning in to their coverage.
Germany’s comeback victory over Sweden surpassed FOX’s previous high for viewership, drawing 5.397 million viewers to the English-language broadcast. This represents an increase of over 1 million viewers from FOX’s highest viewed game in round 1 between Brazil and Switzerland.
Overall, the second round of World Cup games saw a 15.43% increase in viewership with FOX Sports making up a large majority of the increase seeing viewership rise on their networks by 25%. Telemundo saw just a 6% increase from their first-round coverage.
FOX’s Major League Soccer broadcast directly following Poland’s World Cup match against Colombia was easily the highest rated match so far this season with 1.074 million viewers tuning in. It was also FOX’s highest-rated MLS broadcast ever for a game not attached to an NFL broadcast.
Here are the most-watched soccer games on US TV for June 20-24, 2018:
| Rank | Date | Competition | Teams | TV1 | TV2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6/23/18 | World Cup | Korea / Mexico | FOX; 4437000 | Telemundo; 6600000 | 11,037,000 |
| 2 | 6/23/18 | World Cup | Germany / Sweden | FOX; 5397000 | Telemundo; 3430000 | 8,827,000 |
| 3 | 6/24/18 | World Cup | Poland / Colombia | FOX; 4384000 | Telemundo; 3540000 | 7,924,000 |
| 4 | 6/24/18 | World Cup | Japan / Senegal | FOX; 3505000 | Telemundo; 2380000 | 5,885,000 |
| 5 | 6/21/18 | World Cup | Argentina / Croatia | FOX; 2560000 | Telemundo; 2030000 | 4,590,000 |
| 6 | 6/21/18 | World Cup | France / Peru | FOX; 1930000 | Telemundo; 1950000 | 3,880,000 |
| 7 | 6/20/18 | World Cup | Iran / Spain | FOX; 2240000 | Telemundo; 1630000 | 3,870,000 |
| 8 | 6/22/18 | World Cup | Serbia / Switzerland | FOX; 2310000 | Telemundo; 1410000 | 3,720,000 |
| 9 | 6/22/18 | World Cup | Nigeria / Iceland | FOX; 2240000 | Telemundo; 1340000 | 3,580,000 |
| 10 | 6/24/18 | World Cup | England / Panama | FS1; 1623000 | Telemundo; 1510000 | 3,133,000 |
| 11 | 6/23/18 | World Cup | Belgium / Tunisia | FOX; 1861000 | Telemundo; 1270000 | 3,131,000 |
| 12 | 6/20/18 | World Cup | Uruguay / Saudi Arabia | FOX; 1560000 | Telemundo; 1390000 | 2,950,000 |
| 13 | 6/22/18 | World Cup | Brazil / Costa Rica | FS1; 1215000 | Telemundo; 1560000 | 2,775,000 |
| 14 | 6/20/18 | World Cup | Portugal / Morocco | FS1; 1082000 | Telemundo; 1270000 | 2,352,000 |
| 15 | 6/21/18 | World Cup | Denmark / Australia | FS1; 854000 | Telemundo; 913000 | 1,767,000 |
| 16 | 6/24/18 | MLS | Atlanta United / Portland Timbers | FOX; 1074000 | FOXD; — | 1,074,000 |
SEE MORE: Access our archives of US TV ratings for soccer.
READ MORE:
• Cord cutter’s guide to World Cup 2018
• World Cup shirts for all 32 teams
FOX and MLS both know MLS probably won’t average 1 million plus viewers on average next season after the World Cup, but if FOX and MLS can pick off 10-20% percent of the viewership to add to the 500ish-K MLS averages on FOX to bump those ratings up to 650-700k next year they will consider it a success. MLS historically receives bumps in TV viewership during World Cups and data has shown they are able to convert a couple ten of thousands of fans into regular TV MLS viewers. FOX is attempting to ramp up and multiply those past results moving forward. Plan is moving smoothly as planned so far. See below note WC 2014 bump in 2015. Before WC 2018 bump started, MLS was averaging 278k this year.
What were the ratings for Dallas/RBNY 6/23/18 on Univsion?
Collin also we are missing these games numbers I know you replied to me a couple weeks ago and said you re ask for the Galaxy and San Jose Cali Clasico Friday Night Double header on Unimas below are the MLS games you haven’t posted ratings on I will wire you $20 bucks if you can get these numbers. We track these numbers for historical tracking purposes we appreciate what you do. MLS games missing below.
1.. Toronto FC vs Seattle ?? FS1 Wed 5/9/18/ 730pm**
2. CHI vs Houston UniMas ??? Sun 5/20/18 400 pm **
3. LAG vs San Jose UDN(107K)UniMas??? Fri 5/25/18 1055pm**
(No Unimas Number Reported for last double header game)
4. NYRB vs FC Dallas UniMas?? Sat 6/23/18 600 pm**
5. San Jose vs LAG UniMas ??? Sat 6/30/18 1000 pm
As a comparison, NHL for the 2017/18 Season averaged 1,290,000 viewers on NBC Network, 302,000 viewers on NBCSN and 417,000 per game overall. MLS is 897,000 on FOX Network, 259,000 on ESPN/FS1/UNIVISION and 338,000 overall so far in 2018.
Not too far off from NHL and Regular Season and may have a crack at the NBC number with 3 more games on Big FOX (2) World Cup and (1) NFL/MLS simulcast game left. MLS is getting somewhat of a extra boost from the World Cup but they’ll retain some of those fans like they normally do after every World Cup. NHL is said to be looking for no less than 500mil per year and that is with posting a TV increase in only 2 seasons out of 8 on NBC and numbers that have declined every year since 2014/2015. So if NHL gets that MLS can get 350-400 mil per year. I know some people will say if the EPL is getting 167 mil per year no way MLS can even think of getting that much. MLS is not battling EPL in TV money they are getting compared in board negotiating rooms up against the other US based leagues like NFL/NBA/MLB and NHL.
Last tv deal MLS got about 45% of what NHL. MLS has closed the TV gap significantly increasing TV numbers year or year while NHL has decreased each year some years having back to back multiple percentage decreases. I think MLS gets up to about 70% of whatever NHL gets this go around.
Aren’t record smashing regular season MLS records are worth their own headline. But that wouldn’t fit in with WST’s anti-MLS agenda.