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The huge audience for the 2026 Men’s World Cup on Fox Sports extended to match-related programming.
The number of viewers for Fox’s pre-match program has doubled compared to the 2022 World Cup, according to Nielsen figures for the first 12 days of the tournament. During the second stage of the group stage, which concluded on June 23, pre-match viewers averaged 2.4 million viewers, a 117 percent improvement versus the same point in 2022 (1.11 million).
The pregame is even slightly ahead of the match coverage on Fox Sports in terms of increase percentage. The first two group stage matches attracted 5.62 million viewers on Fox, FS1 and Tubi, up 113 percent from the 2.64 million group stage viewers in 2022.
Certainly, having the World Cup on home soil – and returning to its usual place on the calendar – accounts for a big part of the ratings boost. The United States, Mexico, and Canada are co-hosting the tournament, which means that pre-match shows begin in the late morning or midday Eastern time; The men’s World Cup was last held in Qatar in the fall of 2022, which means a time difference of eight to 11 hours in the United States, depending on the time zone. The later date (to avoid Qatar’s extreme summer heat) also meant a busier television sports calendar.
Fox’s core studio team of host Rebecca Lowe (on loan from NBC, where she hosts Premier League coverage) and analysts Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexi Lalas, have come under heavy scrutiny, especially early in the tournament. Henry and Ibrahimovic are considered two of the greatest players of the last 30 years, and were seen to have a frosty relationship with former US national team player Lalas, who has been with Fox since 2015. Whatever the reason, people are watching.
The World Cup as a whole has been a big one for both Fox and Telemundo/Peacock, which have the Spanish-language broadcast rights in the United States. Total viewership for the World Cup up to 23 June was well above 10 million viewers per match.
Full evaluations of the group stage, which ended on Saturday, are expected to be released within the next two days.
