FOX World Cup ratings remain well below four years ago, but the gap is narrowing.
The 60-match averages are the lowest for the World Cup on English-language television since 2006 (1.4, 2.0M).
Keep in mind this year’s World Cup is the first since 1986 not to involve the United States. Excluding U.S. matches, this year’s tournament is still down 18% in ratings and 21% in viewership from 2014 (2.2, 3.42M), but up 12% and 14% respectively from 2010 (1.6, 2.38M).
The quarterfinals provide a true apples-to-apples comparison as the U.S. did not make it to that round in 2010 or 2014. The four matches averaged a 3.0 rating and 4.89 million on FOX and FS1, down just 9% in ratings and 12% in viewership from ’14 (3.3, 5.58M) and up 7% and 13% respectively from 2010 (2.8, 4.34M).
World Cup ratings were widely expected to plunge after the U.S. failed to qualify, and the 35 percent drop from 2014 is substantial. Even so, the fact that ratings are within range of 2010 — which was considered an unqualified success at the time — is nothing less than a win for Fox.
Croatia-Russia was the top quarterfinal with 6.32 million viewers on FOX Saturday afternoon (includes pre-match coverage), up 20% from 2014 (Netherlands-Costa Rica: 5.26M) and up 28% from 2010 (Spain-Paraguay: 4.94M). It was the most-watched quarterfinal since at least 1990. England-Sweden had 4.76 million earlier in the day (+6%).
Over on Telemundo, World Cup coverage has averaged 2.2 million through the quarterfinals, including streaming viewership — down 32% from Univision’s TV-only average in 2014 (3.26M). All averages are for the match window only.
[Numbers from Nielsen, Fox Sports 7.8, Telemundo]
