The two major international soccer tournaments continue to deliver strong numbers as their respective finals approach.
The UEFA Euro 2024 semifinals averaged 3.08 million viewers on FOX, up a third from the 2021 semifinals on ESPN (2.32M) and the highest average ever for the round on English-language television. Tuesday’s Spain-France match averaged 3.20 million, up 44% from Italy-Spain in ’21 (2.22M) and the most-watched semifinal on record.
Spain’s win, which peaked with 4.20 million viewers, ranks fourth for the tournament behind a trio of quarterfinal matches — Portgual-France (4.28M), Netherlands-Turkey (3.46M) and England-Switzerland (3.33M). Miami-Ft. Lauderdale led all markets with a 3.7 rating and 18 share, followed by San Diego (2.5/18) and Los Angeles (2.5/17).
On Wednesday, England’s last-second win over the Netherlands averaged 2.97 million — trailing only Spain-France as the most-watched semifinal on record.
The full UEFA Euro tournament is averaging 1.57 million viewers, up 40% from 2021 (1.12M). Keep in mind the Fox networks have carried five fewer windows than ESPN/ABC did three years ago, having sublicensed those to the streaming service Fubo. (There are no Spanish-language figures for the Euro tournament, as Univision is airing all of its coverage on the streaming service VIX.)
Shifting to Copa America, Wednesday’s Colombia-Uruguay semifinal averaged 2.15 million viewers on FS1 — the largest English-language audience on record for a Copa America semifinal, excluding those involving the United States. The match averaged a larger audience of 2.9 million across Univision and TUDN, bringing the combined total to about five million.
Tuesday’s Argentina-Canada semifinal averaged 1.99 million on FS1 — ranking second among semifinals on English-language TV — and 2.7 million on Univision and TUDN for a combined audience of about 4.7 million.
FS1 averaged 2.07 million viewers for the Copa America semifinals, a record for the round on English-language television, with the full tournament averaging 1.23 million — up nearly 400 percent from 2021 (261K) and 39% from 2016 (886K).
