The first men’s World Cup in North America in 32 years kicked off in front of a large television audience, including record-breaking opening matches for two of the host nations, the United States and Mexico.
The U.S. team’s 4-1 win over Paraguay on Friday averaged about 25 million viewers on Fox (and its streaming outlets Tubi and Fox One), Telemundo and Peacock, based on preliminary Nielsen ratings and internal broadcast data. A day earlier, Mexico opened the tournament with a 2-0 win over South Africa, which was watched by more than 19 million viewers across all platforms.
The network says that Fox, Tube and Fox One combined had 15.99 million viewers for the match between the United States and Paraguay, a record for a US men’s national team match on English-language television. Friday’s telecast beat the 15.49 million viewers for the group stage match between the United States and England in the 2022 World Cup. (Both numbers include pre-match coverage; the average for the match period alone would be higher.)
On Telemundo and Peacock, the USA-Paraguay match averaged 8.9 million viewers (match period only). This also holds a record for the most watched Team USA World Cup match on Spanish-language television.
The Mexico-South Africa match attracted 12.1 million viewers on Telemundo and Peacock, making it the most-watched World Cup match ever on Spanish-language television in the United States. (The 2022 final between Argentina and France had 9 million viewers on Telemundo and Peacock.) On Fox and its streaming outlets, Mexico’s win brought in 7.19 million viewers.
FS1’s first match of the tournament, South Korea’s 2-1 win over the Czechs on Thursday, brought in 3.07 million viewers, more than double the cable channel’s average for group stage matches in 2022. Full ratings for the first four days of group stage matches will be available Tuesday afternoon.
