The biggest World Cup ever in the United States was fittingly capped by the most watched final match — and most watched match, period.
Spain’s 1-0, extra-time victory over Argentina in Sunday’s final match delivered a combined total of more than 60 million viewers on Fox, Telemundo and Peacock. That is well beyond every other record set in earlier stages of the tournament and more than doubles the 25.78 million who watched the 2022 final between Argentina and Spain (16.78 million on Fox, 9 million on Telemundo and Peacock).
Sunday’s audience was the the largest ever in the United States for any soccer match by more than 15 million viewers. The U.S. team’s loss to Belgium in the round of 16 was the previous high with 45.99 million viewers.
Fox’s English-language broadcast averaged 38.9 million viewers, 5.8 million more than the U.S.-Belgium match, and peaked with almost 51.7 million people watching from 5:45-6 p.m. ET as Spain sewed up its victory on a Ferran Torres goal in the 106th minute. The 38.9 million figure also includes some pre-game coverage (as have its other ratings reports for the World Cup); for the match only, Fox’s audience was 42.5 million.
Preliminary numbers for Telemundo and Peacock put the final at 22.6 million viewers — just shy of the all-time Spanish-language record of 23.2 million for the Mexico-England match in the round of 16. It could pass that mark pending updates.
The semifinals also brought in big numbers, with Argentina’s comeback to beat England scoring 28.3 million combined viewers (16.9 million on Fox, 11.4 million on Telemundo and Peacock) and Spain’s shutout of France earning 22.91 million (13.11 million for Fox, 9.8 million for Telemundo/Peacock).
Saturday’s third-place game, a defense-optional 6-4 win for England over France, drew 13.13 million viewers for Fox, almost three times as many as the previous English-language high (4.76 million in 2010).
For the tournament as a whole, Fox Sports averaged 7.74 million viewers on Fox, FS1 and Tubi, more than doubling the audience for both of its previous men’s World Cups (3.59 million in 2022, 2.77 million in 2018). Telemundo and Peacock (plus Universo and other Telemundo digital platforms) likewise had more than twice as many viewers as for the 2022 tournament, averaging more than 6 million viewers (vs. about 2.5 million four years ago).
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