U-S Win Is Most-Watched English Soccer Telecast Ever

Fox’s broadcast of the USMNT’s Round of 32 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday became the most-watched soccer telecast in English-language U.S. history, with a preliminary average of 24.429 million viewers and a peak audience of 31.883 million.

The number blows past the record the USMNT itself had set earlier in the tournament. 

The team’s group-stage opener against Paraguay initially drew 15.986 million viewers before Fox’s final numbers pushed that figure to 18.037 million, a mark that stood as the most-watched Men’s World Cup telecast in English-language U.S. history for the rest of group play. The USMNT’s win over Australia came in close behind at 16.22 million in final numbers — up from 14.78 million in preliminary viewership — driven in part by a Friday afternoon kickoff that still managed to outdraw every non-USMNT match in the tournament.

Fox saw this coming, as President of insights and analytics Michael Mulvihill told Colin Cowherd before the knockout rounds began that a Round of 32 game in primetime could clear 30 million viewers on its own, with the Round of 16 potentially matching it. He pegged a hypothetical USMNT run to the final at an average of 50 million, which would dwarf the 26 million viewers who watched the 2022 final in the U.S. across English and Spanish broadcasts.

The USMNT’s run continues into the Round of 16 against Belgium, a matchup that, per Mulvihill’s own projections, carries an even higher ceiling than the record set by Wednesday’s game.