The United States is not the only team moving the needle during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Sunday’s Netherlands/Mexico FIFA World Cup match earned a combined 17.0 million viewers across ESPN and Univision, the second-largest audience of the tournament thus far. Only the United States/Portugal match a week earlier earned more viewers (24.7M).
Excluding the NFL and the Olympics, Netherlands/Mexico ranks as the sixth-most watched sporting event of 2014, trailing only the BCS title game (26.1M), USA/Portugal, the NCAA Tournament title game (21.2M), The Belmont Stakes (20.4M) and the clinching game of the NBA Finals (18.0M).
The match earned 10.4 million viewers on Univision alone, the largest audience in the history of U.S. Spanish-language television. The previous high was 9.4 million for a Mexico/Argentina World Cup match in 2010.
ESPN’s coverage of the match drew a 4.0 U.S. rating and 6.6 million viewers, the largest audience ever for a World Cup match on ESPN or ESPN2 that did not involve the United States. Overall, the match ranks as the fourth-most watched men’s soccer telecast ever on ESPN or ESPN2.
San Diego was the the top market for ESPN’s telecast, with a 8.3 rating. Los Angeles ranked second with a 7.5, and the Bay Area (7.0), Washington, DC (6.8) and New York (6.4) rounded out the top five. Univision coverage trounced ESPN in Los Angeles (14.7 to 7.5), Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (11.5 to 5.7) and Houston (10.0 to 5.3). and Dallas-Ft. Worth (7.4 to 3.3).
(Sun. numbers from Univision, ESPN; additional info from Dallas Morning-News)
