Airing at Noon on a weekday, it is no surprise that the latest United States World Cup match was not as big a draw.
The Germany/USA FIFA World Cup match earned a 6.3 overnight rating on ESPN Thursday afternoon, the third-highest overnight ever for a men’s soccer match on ESPN or ESPN2 and the fourth-highest regardless of gender. The only matches to do better also involved team USA — USA/Ghana (7.0) and USA/Portugal (9.1) in this year’s World Cup and the Japan/USA Women’s World Cup final (8.6).
The match peaked with a 9.5 overnight from 1:45-2 PM ET, extremely high considering the timeslot.
New York City was the top market for the ESPN telecast with a 9.7 rating, followed by San Diego (8.6), Sacramento (8.3) and a four-way tie between Seattle-Tacoma, Orlando, Baltimore and Columbus, OH (8.1). The West Coast numbers are especially impressive considering the match began at 9 AM local time.
Washington, DC, which remains the top market for ESPN/ABC World Cup coverage to-date, did not make the top ten.
Overnight ratings were not available for the Univision telecast of the same match.
(Thu. numbers from ESPN)
