8.9 million watched Argentina-Mexico on Telemundo Deportes

It was the game that executives from Telemundo Deportes were most looking forward to ahead of the 2022 World Cup. Argentina against Mexico. And it didn’t disappoint. So much so that 8.9 million tuned in across Telemundo, Peacock and Telemundo’s streaming app to watch the incredible 2-0 win for Argentina.

The matchup between Argentina and Mexico was a dream for Telemundo executives. The most popular team in North America against the team featuring Messi from South America. More to it than that, the game on FOX Sports was positioned on FS1 instead of FOX because of programming conflicts.

Argentina-Mexico is a record breaker in United States

Argentina against Mexico broke three records in the United States:

It’s the most-watched sports event in Telemundo history. Telemundo was founded in 1984.
Most-watched World Cup Group Stage game ever in Spanish-language in the United States.
Most-streamed World Cup game ever with more than 2 million viewers.

How many of the viewership were English-language speakers is unknown, but that must have certainly been a factor, too.

Saturday’s Argentina-Mexico match is the first World Cup game to top two million viewers with an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 2.08 million viewers on Peacock and Telemundo streaming platforms and beating the previous record set by Tuesday’s Mexico v. Poland game (1.35 million).

The streaming success has driven Peacock to the No. 1 spot on the App Store for free iOS apps every day since the tournament began, with the Telemundo Deportes app often breaking into the Top 5.

World Cup viewership is up

Through seven days, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 is averaging a total audience delivery of 2.6 million viewers for 24 games, up 24% vs. the 2018 tournament (2.1 million), which took place in Russia in the summer.

During the Argentina-Mexico match window (1:30-4:00 pm ET), Telemundo ranked as the No. 1 network overall regardless of language in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, and San Francisco and #1 on Spanish-language TV in Dallas, Chicago, Phoenix, Orlando, Sacramento, Tampa, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C, Boston and Atlanta.