TV ratings for the FIFA men’s World Cup have shot up compared to the 2022 event — which is not a huge surprise, given that soccer’s biggest prize is being played in North America this time.
Doubling the audience from the last World Cup, though? Even optimistic projections form Fox Sports and Telemundo might not have anticipated that.
“I was expecting to see our numbers grow. Was I expecting 122 percent over 2022? Probably not,” Joaquin Duro, executive vp sports for NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday. “So it’s a surprise in some sense, but then you sit back and say, well, actually, we planned for this. We’re taking some of this credit for having a well-prepared plan.”
Across all English- and Spanish-language platforms, the group stage of the 2026 World Cup drew 9.65 million viewers per match. That’s a 105 percent increase over the combined total of 4.71 million for the 2022 tournament, which was played in Qatar in November and December. The audience was split pretty evenly: English-language telecasts on Fox and FS1 (and Tubi for a couple of matches) averaged 5.05 million viewers (vs. 2.64 million in 2022). Telemundo and Peacock, plus Universo and other Telemundo digital platforms, drew 4.6 million viewers per game (up from 2.07 million in 2022) in the group stage.
All three of Mexico’s group stage games drew more than 10 million cross-platform viewers on Telemundo and Peacock. The June 18 match vs. South Korea had 14 million viewers, setting a record for any Spanish-language soccer telecast in the U.S. Duro said early numbers for Mexico’s round of 32 victory over Ecuador were trending toward record territory as well.
Having a host of late-afternoon and primetime games is of course a big driver of ratings increases on both Fox and Telemundo. For Telemundo, having every match streaming on Peacock has been almost equally important. Peacock made up a huge 44 percent of the audience for the Spanish-language telecasts during group play. NBC’s NBA playoffs coverage got about 19 percent of its total audience from Peacock; for Sunday Night Football last season, streaming accounted for 13 percent of viewers.
Duro noted that Hispanic viewers over-index in viewing of streaming on mobile devices, which likely makes up a significant number of Peacock’s 2 million viewers per match (particularly for afternoon games). But he also said that after the 2022 World Cup, Telemundo made comprehensive plans to attract more viewers that included hiring commentators and reporters from a host of Spanish-speaking countries, working with FIFA to secure key positions for its on-pitch reporters and supporting the matches with a lot of associated programming.
“When we have two games at the same time, you can split the screen. We have vertical video,” Duro said. “The Peacock experience is just incredible. You can pause the game, you can rewind, you can see the best plays. It’s doing what a streaming service is supposed to do — bring in new audiences.”
Peacock’s World Cup audience has more than tripled compared to 2022 (pacing somewhat ahead of subscriber growth), but Telemundo’s linear stations have also seen big gains. On-air ratings for Telemundo’s World Cup coverage are up 73 percent vs. 2022 (2.6 million vs. 1.5 million).
“I am very satisfied of looking at the linear numbers in what is supposed to be a declining business,” said Duro. “I am very satisfied with the job that my team has done. … We’re beating the audiences for 2022 and 2018, even back to 2014 and 2010. That to me is just an incredible win.”
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