The 2014 FIFA World Cup got off to a strong start on ESPN and Univision.
Thursday’s Brazil/Croatia World Cup opener earned approximately 9.5 million viewers on ESPN and Univision, up 19% from South Africa/Mexico in 2010 (8.0M). The 2010 opener aired earlier in the day (9:30 AM ET).
Univision provided the bulk of the audience, with 5.1 million tuning into the network’s telecast. Viewership actually declined 6% from the 2010 opener (5.4M), which as mentioned before featured the popular Mexico team.
On ESPN, the match earned a 2.8 U.S. rating and 4.4 million viewers — up 49% in ratings and 55% in viewership from 2010 (1.9, 2.9M) and the network’s fourth-largest audience ever for a World Cup group play match. The only group play matches to earn a larger audience on ESPN involved the United States — USA/Colombia in 1994 (4.8M), USA/Slovenia in 2010 (5.2M) and USA/Algeria in 2010 (6.2M).
To put the numbers in perspective, Brazil/Croatia earned a larger audience than every Stanley Cup playoff game this year, every NBA playoff game excluding the ongoing NBA Finals, and every NASCAR race this season — including the rain-delayed Daytona 500 (9.3M). With that said, Brazil/Croatia could not quite match the first round of this year’s NFL Draft (12.4M).
(Thu. numbers from ESPN, Univision)
