With the Americans close to a rare defeat, the Women’s World Cup delivered a record group stage audience.
Wednesday’s United States-Netherlands FIFA Women’s World Cup group stage match, a rematch of the 2019 final, averaged a 3.1 rating and 6.43 million viewers on FOX — the largest single-network group stage audience on record and the seventh-largest regardless of round. Figures include a streaming audience of 197,000 on Fox Sports digital platforms, also a group stage record.
The previous single-network record was 5.32 million for a USWNT-Chile match in 2019. The first two USWNT matches this year account for two of the three largest group stage audiences on record, with last Friday’s opener against Vietnam placing third (5.26M).
Most-watched Women’s World Cup matches on a single network
Spanish-language coverage on Telemundo and Universo averaged a 0.6 and 1.17 million, bringing the combined totals up to 3.7 and 7.59 million. Keep in mind figures for both FOX and Telemundo include pre-match coverage; the match window figure is almost certainly higher.
The combined audience is the highest of any primetime television program since the end of the NBA Finals in June, surpassing the MLB All-Star Game earlier this month (7.01M).
The match averaged a combined 2.4 rating in adults 18-49 across FOX (1.95) and Telemundo and Universo (0.42), also the highest of any television program since the NBA Finals.
Milwaukee led all markets for the FOX telecast with a 5.8 rating and 16 share, followed close behind by Kansas City (5.5/16) and Washington, D.C. (5.4/18). Further back, Cincinnati (4.6/13) and Dallas-Ft. Worth (4.4/14) rounded out the top five.
(Nielsen estimates from Fox Sports, Programming Insider 7.27)
