The two major international soccer tournaments concluded on a strong note Sunday.
Sunday’s Argentina-Colombia Copa America final averaged 6.84 and 6.35 million viewers respectively across Fox Sports and Univision, marking a combined audience of 13.2 million. (The 6.02 million previously reported for FOX included pre-match coverage. The updated Fox figure includes an FS1 first half simulcast, with the FOX-only coverage at 6.45 million.)
The English-language audience, which peaked with 7.07 million in the 10:45 PM ET quarter-hour, soared triple-digits over the two previous finals in 2021 (Brazil-Argentina: 1.94M) and 2016 (Argentina-Chile: 2.53M), both of which aired on FS1. It was the tournament’s largest English-language audience on record.
Univision’s telecast, which peaked with 6.66 million in the 11:15 PM ET quarter-hour, was the network’s most-watched program of any kind since the 2014 World Cup final.
Earlier in the day, the Spain-England UEFA Euro 2024 final averaged 7.17 million on FOX and 3.0 million on Univision, marking the largest English and Spanish-language Euro telecasts on record. (The 6.43 previously reported for FOX included pre-match coverage.)
The FOX audience, which peaked with 8.47 million viewers during the 4:30 PM ET quarter-hour, increased 6% from the previous high of 6.49 million for the 2021 Italy-England final on ESPN. As one would expect, the two finals rank as the most-watched non-World Cup soccer telecasts ever on Fox Sports.
Locally, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, San Diego, the Bay Area and the nation’s #1 market New York were the top five markets for both the Euro and Copa finals on FOX. Miami was the top market for the latter (5.0/14) and the Bay Area the top market for the former (4.5/23).
The full Euro 2024 tournament averaged 1.68 million viewers on FOX and FS1, up 34% from 2021 (1.25M) and the most-watched edition of the tournament on English-language television. Keep in mind Fox aired five fewer windows than ESPN/ABC did three years ago, having sublicensed some lower-rated early round matches to the streaming service Fubo. (It is unlikely that the discrepancy in number of telecasts could in any way account for a 34 percent increase in viewership.)
The Copa America tournament averaged 1.42 million across FOX, FS1 and FS2, up more than 350 percent from 2021 (309K) and up 44% from 2016 (987K) to rank as the most-watched edition of the tournament on English-language TV.
While Fox Sports’ success with the Euro and Copa tournaments has made the most headlines this summer, it should be noted that the most-watched soccer coverage was Copa America on Univision — which averaged 1.86 million, up 61% from 2021.
