Sunday will go down in history as the day that the United States Women’s National Team won a record fourth Women’s World Cup. But while the US women captured much of the limelight this past weekend, the biggest winner on Sunday was the sport of soccer as more than 29 million viewers tuned in to watch the finals of the Women’s World Cup, Gold Cup and Copa America as well as a midseason MLS game.
The viewership numbers on Sunday featured:
• USA-Netherlands (Women’s World Cup Final) 15.87 million (FOX and Telemundo)
• Brazil-Peru (Copa America Final) 3.1 million (Telemundo)
• USA-Mexico (Gold Cup Final) 8.9 million (FS1 and Univision)
• Atlanta-New York Red Bulls (MLS game) 1.6 million (FOX)
Sunday’s viewership will go down in history as the biggest single day for soccer on US television, according to research by World Soccer Talk.
During previous summers, both the Women’s World Cup and men’s World Cup have generated huge viewership numbers. But this past Sunday was the first time ever when three major finals of Copa America, Gold Cup and Women’s World Cup were played on the same day, thus generating a one-of-a-kind record-breaking opportunity.
While the combined viewership numbers for the Women’s World Cup, Gold Cup and Copa America finals (as well as the midseason MLS game) broke records, the games broke individual records too:
• The 1.6 million viewers for Atlanta-Red Bulls measured as FOX’s most-watched MLS telecast ever and the most-watched MLS telecast on English-language TV since 2004,
• USA-Netherlands Women’s World Cup Final was the most-watched FIFA Women’s World Cup match in Spanish-language history (Telemundo),
• On FOX Sports, the USA-Netherlands game was the most-watched soccer match on English-language television in the U.S. since the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup final,
• Sunday’s Copa America Final between Brazil and Peru averaged 3.1 million viewers, ranking as the most-watched Copa America final since 2007 – tripling the 2015 final (Chile vs. Argentina, 1 million total viewers), and
• USA-Mexico Gold Cup Final was the most-watched men’s soccer match of 2019 on any network.
