Argentina’s dramatic victory over France on penalty kicks in the World Cup final was the second most watched soccer game of any kind in the United States.
The first numbers from Nielsen, Fox and Telemundo show that Sunday’s game had a combined English and Spanish audience of 25,783,000.
That’s behind the 26.7 million who tuned in to the 2015 Women’s World Cup final, when the US beat Japan 5-2 in a game that aired in prime time for most states. United because the tournament was held in Canada.
Fox’s Sunday numbers should rise when the “matches only” rating is released later on Tuesday. The 16,783,000 average posted by Fox and Nielsen includes pre-game and post-game coverage.
The high viewership comes as the US, Canada and Mexico are set to host the 2026 World Cup.
Argentina’s first world title since 1986 was Fox’s most-watched match at the tournament, surpassing the 15,491,000 who watched the Americans draw 0-0 with England during the group stage on November 25.
Sunday’s combined viewership was a 31% increase over the 2018 finale, which averaged 17.83 million on Fox and Telemundo. Fox’s viewership is up 25.5% from four years ago, when France defeated Croatia in the final.
Telemundo’s total audience of 9 million is a 65% increase over 2018. Almost a third (2.96 million) broadcast Sunday’s game on Peacock and Telemundo digital services, making it the game of the most broadcast World Cup in US history, regardless of language.
By comparison, the 6.04 million who watched on Telemundo was triple the 1.9 million who watched the network’s Super Bowl 57 broadcast earlier this year.
While the Super Bowl continues to lead the championship in viewing (this year’s game had a combined viewership of 112.3 million), the World Cup final outperformed other sports. Game 5 of the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros averaged 12.77 million on Fox and was the most-watched game of the six-game series. The games that clinched the NBA Finals series and the NHL Stanley Cup Finals averaged 13.99 million and 5.8 million, respectively, on ABC.
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