An all-time FIFA World Cup Final delivered one of the largest soccer audiences ever on U.S. television.
Sunday’s Argentina-France FIFA World Cup Final averaged a combined 9.2 rating and 22.32 million viewers across FOX (7.0, 16.78M) and Telemundo (2.2, 5.53M), figures that include pre-match coverage and do not include streaming. From the start of the match at 10 AM ET, the combined linear audience was 24 million (17.93M on FOX* and 6.07M on Telemundo). (* The official FOX match window audience is 17.73 million.)
The match averaged an additional three million viewers on Telemundo’s streaming platforms, including Peacock. The full Telemundo/Peacock audience across TV and streaming was nine million.
The linear TV audience peaked at a combined 13.0 rating and 33.34 million in the final quarter-hour of play, as Argentina won on penalty kicks — including a 10.2 and 25.62 million on FOX and a 2.8 and 7.72 million on Telemundo.
On FOX, ratings jumped 13% and viewership a whopping 48% from France-Croatia four years ago (6.2, 11.33M). The sharp disparity between the increase in ratings and viewership can be attributed to out-of-home viewing, which was not included in Nielsen viewership in prior editions of the tournament.
On a linear basis, the World Cup final ranks fifth all-time among soccer matches in the United States behind the match window figures for the 2015 Women’s World Cup Final (USWNT-Japan: 26.7M), 2014 Germany-Argentina men’s final (26.7M), 2014 USMNT-Portugal group stage match (24.7M) and 2010 Spain-Netherlands final (24.3M). That holds with or without pre-match coverage included.
The FOX-only audience is the highest ever for a men’s World Cup match on a single network with pre-match coverage included, and the second-highest on a match window basis (ESPN topped 18 million for a USMNT-Portugal group play match in 2014).
The World Cup Final ranks as the most-watched non-football sportscast this year. With pre-match coverage included, it ranks third — narrowly trailing the College Football Playoff National Championship in January (22.56M) and the Winter Olympics Super Bowl lead-out in February (22.49M).
