The Fox Sports ‘summer of soccer’ has thus far been a ratings success.
The opening weekend of Copa America 2024 tournament averaged 1.26 million viewers across FOX and FS1, up more-than-fivefold from the opening weekend three years ago (227K) and up 71% from the first six matches in 2016 (735K). (Update: including Monday’s matches, Copa America is averaging 1.12 million, still up more-than-fivefold from 2021 and up 58% from 2016.)
Sunday’s United States-Bolivia match averaged 3.19 million, the most-watched Copa America match ever on U.S. television and the largest soccer audience ever on Fox Sports outside of the World Cup.
The USMNT’s win, which peaked with 4.08 million viewers, more-than-doubled the viewership average for their Copa America group stage matches three years ago (1.52M).
San Diego led all markets with a 2.6 rating and 13 share, followed by Washington DC and Austin, Texas., at a 2.5 each. Kansas City was not far behind with 2.4.
Shifting to the UEFA Euro 2024, coverage was averaging 1.16 million on the Fox networks through Sunday — up 30% from 2021 on the ESPN networks (887K), with the caveat that Fox sublicensed a handful of matches to the Fubo streaming service, which is not Nielsen rated.
Saturday’s Belgium-Romania match drew 1.88 million on FOX, the largest UEFA Euro group stage audience since 2012 and up 31% from Spain-Poland on ABC in 2021 (1.43M). Belgium’s win, which peaked with 2.13 million, surpassed the previous high of 1.8 million for England-Serbia the prior week.
San Diego led all markets with a 2.8 rating and 17 share, the highest local rating of any match on Fox Sports last weekend.
On Sunday, Switzerland-Germany averaged 1.81 million on FOX — up 52% from Italy-Wales on ESPN in ’21 (1.19M) — while a competing Hungary-Scotland match on FS1 drew 390,000 (+64%).
