The first USWNT match of the Women’s World Cup delivered a near-record group stage audience.
Friday’s United States-Vietnam FIFA Women’s World Cup match averaged a 2.4 rating and 5.26 million viewers on FOX, per Nielsen fast-nationals — trailing only a 2019 match against Chile (5.34M) as the most-watched Women’s World Cup group stage match on record. Figures include a streaming audience of 156,000 viewers, a record for a group stage match.
The Americans’ win, which peaked with 6.55 million viewers from 10:45-11 PM ET, delivered the tenth-largest Women’s World Cup audience on a single network. FOX now owns nine of the 11 largest Women’s World Cup audiences on record, including the seven largest audiences outside of the final. Keep in mind this year’s Women’s World Cup is the first to take place since Nielsen began including out-of-home viewing in its final nationals.
Most-watched Women’s World Cup matches on record
Viewership nearly doubled the team’s 2019 opener against Thailand (2.65M). Keep in mind the 2019 match aired in a weekday afternoon window. Viewership also outpaced the team’s previous primetime opener in 2015, against Australia on FS1 (3.31M).
Kansas City led all markets for the FOX telecast with a 5.0 rating and 16 share, followed by Washington DC (4.3/15), Hartford (3.9/11), Austin, Tex. (3.7/13) and the Bay Area (3.6/15).
Figures for Telemundo’s Spanish-language coverage were not immediately available.
In other action, Thursday’s Canada-Nigeria match averaged a 0.7 and 1.23 million on FOX — up 6% compared to an average of 1.16 million for non-U.S. group stage matches in 2019.
(Nielsen estimates from Fox Sports, Programming Insider 7.21)
