The 2018 FIFA World Cup Final contested by France and Croatia averaged 16.62 million television viewers across the FOX broadcast network and Telemundo channels. FOX’s English-language coverage drew the largest share of the viewership with 68%, a three percent increase from the 2014 Final.
The knockout stage averaged 8.15 million viewers across both networks with 59% of viewers choosing to watch the 2nd half of the tournament on FOX’s networks. The final 16 matches averaged 4.8 million viewers on FOX and FOX Sports 1, a 1.35 million viewer drop from ESPN’s coverage in the 2014 tournament.
Atlanta United’s match against Seattle Sounders following France’s victory over Croatia averaged a season-high 1.558 million viewers, bringing the average MLS audience on the FOX broadcast network up to 988,000. FOX’s four MLS broadcasts during the 2018 FIFA World Cup averaged 1.225 million viewers. It’s also just the 7th MLS regular season broadcast to draw more than 1 million viewers since the league entered its current broadcast agreement in 2016 with FOX accounting for six of the seven and Univision contributing one in 2016.
Here are the most-watched soccer games on US TV for July 6-15, 2018:
| Rank | Date | Competition | Teams | TV1 | TV2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7/15/18 | World Cup | France / Croatia | FOX; 11300000 | Telemundo; 5320000 | 16,620,000 |
| 2 | 7/7/18 | World Cup | Croatia / Russia | FOX; 6317000 | Telemundo; 2800000 | 9,117,000 |
| 3 | 7/11/18 | World Cup | England / Croatia | FOX; 5504000 | Telemundo; 2750000 | 8,254,000 |
| 4 | 7/10/18 | World Cup | Belgium / France | FOX; 4400000 | Telemundo; 2320000 | 6,720,000 |
| 5 | 7/7/18 | World Cup | England / Sweden | FOX; 4763000 | Telemundo; 1940000 | 6,703,000 |
| 6 | 7/6/18 | World Cup | Brazil / Belgium | FS1; 3519000 | Telemundo; 2900000 | 6,419,000 |
| 7 | 7/6/18 | World Cup | Uruguay / France | FS1; 2548000 | Telemundo; 2080000 | 4,628,000 |
| 8 | 7/14/18 | World Cup | England / Belgium | FOX; 3000000 | Telemundo; 1570000 | 4,570,000 |
| 9 | 7/15/18 | MLS | Atlanta United / Seattle Sounders | FOX; 1558000 | FOXD; — | 1,558,000 |
| 10 | 7/15/18 | Campeon de Campeones | Tigres / Santos | Univision; 421000 | —; — | 421,000 |
| 11 | 7/15/18 | SuperCopa MX | Monterrey / Necaxa | Univision; 315000 | —; — | 315,000 |
| 12 | 7/15/18 | MLS | LAFC / Portland Timbers | ESPN; 253000 | ESPND; — | 253,000 |
| 13 | 7/8/18 | Friendly | Morelia / Club América | —; — | UDN; 182000 | 182,000 |
| 14 | 7/7/18 | MLS | LAFC / Orlando City SC | FS1; 127000 | FOXD; — | 127,000 |
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