World Cup draws huge TV audience in U.S., rivaling top college football, hoops games
.JPG "In the World Cup championship match, Argentina’s Lionel Messi celebrates one of his goals against France on Sunday at Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar.")
One of the largest U.S. television audiences to watch a men’s World Cup soccer game tuned in to see Argentina’s victory over France in Sunday’s tournament’s finale on FOX.
The network averaged 16,783,000 viewers on FOX and FOX Sports streaming services. That topped the 15,491,000 who watched the group-stage game between the U.S. and England on Nov. 25.
Add in Telemundo’s audience, and the championship game’s total audience in the U.S. surpassed 22 million.
According to FOX, Kansas City was the 15th-largest local market in the U.S. for the entire World Cup. Kansas City has been selected as one of 16 host cities across North America for the 2026 World Cup.
About 24 million viewers watched the Argentina-France game in France, and around 20 million watched in England.
So how does Sunday’s American viewership compare with other sports’ top broadcasts in the U.S.?
The most watched college football this season was Michigan-Ohio State on Nov. 26. It drew 17,137,000 viewers on FOX. No. 2 on the list was Georgia-Tennessee on CBS Nov. 5, at 13,059,000.
(Kansas State’s victory over TCU in the Big 12 Championship Game on Dec. 3 ranked eighth for the regular season, with 9,413,000 viewers on ABC.)
Kansas’ victory over North Carolina for the NCAA basketball title on April 5 drew 17.1 million viewers on TNT, TBS and TruTV combined.
Every week this season, the most-watched NFL game has drawn more than 20 million viewers.
This year’s World Cup final, with Argentina winning in penalty kicks, wasn’t a prime-time telecast. But it likely benefited from its early start time in the U.S. The 9 a.m. Central kickoff didn’t conflict with early-window NFL games, which kicked off at noon.
This story was originally published December 20, 2022 at 11:52 AM.