World Cup viewership for USA-England breaks record

The World Cup viewership for USA-England is in, and it’s a colossal number.

Black Friday’s FIFA World Cup game between the United States and England scored 19.9 million viewers across FOX Sports and Telemundo Deportes on television and streaming combined.

Of that, 15.377 million watched the game on FOX, which the broadcaster says is the most-watched men’s soccer match ever on English-language U.S. television. However, there is a debate about the numbers. That’s regarding whether it’s an apples-to-apples comparison with previous World Cup broadcasts. FOX Sports are measuring World Cup matches differently than previous World Cup rights holder ESPN.

Nevertheless, there’s no doubt that it’s a monster number.

The media department at FOX Sports added that the viewership number for USA-England is up 6% from the previous high of 14,510,000 (Italy vs. Brazil Final, 1994).

USA-England a big hit for Telemundo Deportes too

On Spanish-language television and streaming in the United States, the World Cup game between USA-England was watched by 4.6 million viewers.

Combining FOX and Telemundo’s numbers together, the draw between US and England totaled 19,977,000 viewers.

Telemundo is the exclusive Spanish-language media rights holder to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in the U.S.

The 4.6 million viewers for the 0-0 tie between England and USA was up 33% compared to the USA’s first match vs. Wales (3.5 million) on Monday and surpassed nine of the 10 most recent Group Stage matches played by the U.S. team. For the 2006, 2010 and 2014 World Cups, the only match with higher viewership than Friday night’s match was on June 22, 2014, when the USA tied Portugal 2-2 at FIFA World Cup Brazil. This year’s World Cup is the first to take place in the fall in order to offset Qatar’s extreme summer heat. The USA did not qualify for the tournament in 2018.

Since World Cup games on Telemundo are simulcast on Peacock, Telemundo Deportes report that of the 4.6 million total viewers, 1.27 million watched it on Peacock and Telemundo Deportes streaming platforms.

World Cup viewership for USA-England on UK TV

More viewers watched the US-England World Cup game in the United States than they did in soccer-mad United Kingdom. A total of 15.1 million people watched the game across the pond, according to ITV viewing numbers.

There’s no denying that the viewing numbers from FOX and Telemundo are impressive. However, that doesn’t vindicate FOX’s disappointing World Cup TV coverage.

Photo credit: IMAGO / Newspix