The US men’s national soccer team achieved a remarkable feat by breaking the record for the most-watched soccer broadcast in U.S. history not once, but twice.
Despite the disappointment of a 4-1 defeat to Belgium in the Round of 16 on Monday, the pregame buzz attracted an impressive 33.086 million viewers, based on Nielsen Media data. The audience reached a peak of 41.033 million during the time slot of 9:15 to 9:30 PM Eastern Time.
Fox, the English-language rights holder for the World Cup in the U.S., reported that this match was the most-viewed telecast of any kind on any network since Super Bowl LX, which drew 125.6 million viewers in February. Furthermore, it was also the highest-watched non-NFL broadcast since Game 7 of the 2016 World Series.
Prior to this match, the USMNT had set a new viewership record in their previous game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which attracted 26.4 million viewers.
Interest in soccer extends beyond the U.S. team, as evidenced by another significant match. Nielsen confirmed that 21.742 million viewers tuned in to watch the clash between Mexico and England on Sunday, making it the most-watched non-USMNT World Cup broadcast in English in U.S. history. When factoring in the audiences from Telemundo and Peacock, the total audience averaged an astonishing 44.84 million.
These figures surpassed the viewership of the New York Knicks’ championship-clinching Game 5 in the NBA Finals, which had 24.5 million viewers, and were comparable to the AFC and NFC championship games, which averaged 48.6 million and 46.1 million, respectively.
