The World Cup is off to a record-breaking start for both Fox Sports and Telemundo. According to ratings from Fox Sports, Friday’s U.S. Soccer Men’s National Team win over Paraguay scored nearly 16 million viewers — making it the most-watched USMNT World Cup telecast in English-language history.
Meanwhile, Telemundo reports that with an audience of 12.1 million viewers, Thursday’s Mexico win over South Africa was the most-watched World Cup game in Spanish-language history.
The Friday U.S.-Paraguay match — played at SoFi Stadium here in Inglewood, California — averaged 15,986,000 viewers across Fox, Fox One and Tubi. The audience peaked with 18.86 million viewers at 10:45 p.m. ET. It was also the most-streamed English-language USMNT match ever, with 1.13 million viewers on Tubi.
That U.S.-Paraguay match (in which the U.S. won 4-1) was up a whopping 106% from the first Men’s World Cup 2022 USMNT group stage telecast on Fox (7.76 million viewers on Nov. 21, 2022, when the team faced off with Wales).
Friday’s U.S.-Paraguay faceoff also broke the Spanish-language record books on Telemundo, Peacock and Telemundo’s streaming platforms, averaging 8.9 million viewers. That makes it the most-watched USMNT World Cup match ever on Spanish-language TV. It’s also the most-watched World Cup group stage match not featuring Mexico ever on Spanish-language TV.
Like Fox, Telemundo saw a huge jump vs. that Wales match in 2022: Up a staggering 156% (3.5 million viewers back then).
As for Thursday’s Mexico vs. South Africa match, in which Mexico won 2-0, not only was it the most-watched World Cup game in Spanish-language history, but it was the most-streamed Mexico World Cup match and most-streamed group stage match in Spanish-language history.
Also, this repped the most-watched World Cup opening game, regardless of language, ever. And it was the most-watched World Cup group stage game not featuring the U.S. team ever, regardless of language.
World Cup coverage continues Saturday night with Haiti vs. Scotland at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT and Australia vs. Türkiye at 11 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. PT.