FOX set viewership records for the UEFA Euro 2024 quarterfinals, topped by a generational clash between Mbappe’s France and Ronaldo’s Portugal.
Friday’s France-Portugal UEFA Euro 2024 quarterfinal averaged 4.28 million viewers on FOX, marking the largest audience on record for a Euro quarterfinal on English-language television and Fox Sports’ largest soccer audience outside of the World Cup.
France’s win, which peaked with 5.70 million in the 5:30 PM ET quarter-hour, increased 82% from Belgium-Italy on ESPN three years ago (2.36M). Miami-Ft. Lauderdale led all markets with a 4.0 rating and 17 share, followed by San Diego at a 3.4/21 and Richmond with a 3.1/11.
This year’s four quarterfinal matches were the four most-watched on English-language television. Saturday’s Netherlands-Turkey match placed second with 3.46 million — up 50% from Ukraine-England on ABC in ’21 (2.30M). The Netherlands’ win, which peaked with 4.16 million in the 4:30 quarter-hour, also ranks second all-time among non-World Cup matches on FOX.
Rounding out the quarterfinal slate, England-Switzerland drew 3.33 million earlier Saturday and Spain-Germany opened the Friday slate with 3.16 million — both up triple-figures from the equivalent ESPN matches in ’21 (Czech Republic-Denmark: 1.52M; Switzerland-Spain: 1.50M).
The full quarterfinal round averaged 3.57 million on FOX, up 89% from ’21 (1.89M) and — as goes without saying — a record. The full tournament is averaging 1.50 million, up 42% from ’21 (1.06M). Keep in mind the Fox networks have carried five fewer matches than the ESPN networks did three years ago, having sublicensed some lower-rated early round windows to the streaming service Fubo.
As for the other major soccer tournament, the Copa America quarterfinals averaged 1.67 million across FOX and FS1 — up 420% from 2021 (321K) and 40% from 2016 (1.19M). All quarterfinal matches aired on cable in those years. As with Euro 2024, the Copa America quarterfinals were the most-watched yet on English-language television, though the Spanish-language audience on Univision and TUDN was higher at 2.4 million.
Saturday’s Uruguay-Brazil match topped the weekend slate with 2.14 million on FS1 and 2.9 million on Univision and TUDN, for a total of 5.02 million. The FS1 audience was the largest on record for a Copa America quarterfinal on English-language TV. Colombia-Panama led in with 1.19 million on FS1 and 1.9 million on Univision/TUDN for a total of 3.05 million.
On Thursday — the Fourth of July — Argentina-Ecuador drew 1.87 million on FOX, plus 2.7 million on Univision and TUDN, for a total of 4.57 million. Rounding out the quarterfinal slate, Canada-Venezuela drew 1.40 million on FS1 Friday.
Copa America is now averaging 1.17 million across the Fox networks, up fivefold from 2021 (234K) and up 45% from 2016 (807K).
