On Friday, England and the United States met in historic World Cup matches. Drawing Fox attracts 15.4M viewers
The game, which ended in a 0-0 draw, is now one of the most-watched men’s soccer match on U.S. television. The current record holder is still the USA’s 2-2 draw against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal in 2014, which was watched by 24.7M people.
Friday’s match is by far the most-watched game of the 2022 World Cup so far in the U.S.
Another 4.6M tuned in via Telemundo Deportes’ Spanish-language coverage of the match on Telemundo, Peacock and digital platforms. That’s the second most-watched World Cup Group Stage Match featuring a U.S. team in Spanish-language history — up 33% for the U.S.’ first match against Wales.
It’s also Telemundo’s second-most watched game of the 2022 World Cup after the Brazil vs. Serbia Thanksgiving matchup.
Friday’s match benefitted from a 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. ET time started on holidays, making it possible to attract a large viewership. After both England and USA managed good viewerships for their first matches, it was widely anticipated that this would be an historic match.
On Monday, the U.S. vs. Wales match scored 12M across Fox and Telemundo, while England’s fiery 6-2 win over Iran was viewed by 1.6M total viewers in the U.S. across FS1 and digital platforms. It began at 8:05 a.m. ET/5:20 a.m. PST, which is why not many U.S. viewers watched. That match reached its peak on BBC with eight million viewers from the U.K. around noon.