Brazil-Morocco dominant viewership draw as World Cup continues hot start

Brazil's Vinicius Junior (7) celebrates a goal iduring the World Cup Group C soccer match between Brazil and Morocco in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Saturday, June 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

After milestone audiences for Mexico last Thursday and the United States on Friday, Brazil kept the momentum going into the first weekend of the FIFA World Cup.

Saturday’s Brazil-Morocco FIFA World Cup match averaged 11.2 million viewers on Telemundo (combining a Nielsen-measured linear audience and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics), plus a Nielsen-measured 10.02 million on FOX. Note that the Telemundo figure is for the match window only, while the Fox Sports audience includes pre-match coverage.

The Telemundo audience ranks as the second-largest on record for the World Cup on Spanish-language television, behind only Mexico-South Africa last Thursday — which finished with 13.4 million viewers, up from the previously-announced preliminary audience of 12.1 million.

The Fox audience is the largest on record for a non-U.S. World Cup group stage match on English-language television, and the company’s second-largest of the tournament overall. United States-Paraguay on Friday night averaged 18.04 million, up from the previously reported preliminary figure of 15.99 million.

Note that this year’s World Cup is just the second since Nielsen began including out-of-home viewing in its estimates in 2020 and the first since the company shifted to a new methodology last fall that integrates “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes with its traditional panel. Those changes have given most sports properties a leg up on even just a year ago, much less four years ago — and certainly as compared to years prior to 2020.

Leading out of Brazil-Morocco, Haiti-Scotland averaged 6.0 million each on both Telemundo (match window) and Fox Sports (including pre-match) — despite facing an NBA Finals Game 5 that averaged 24.5 million on ABC. Combined, the two events approached about 40 million viewers across three networks on the least-watched night of the week.

Qatar-Switzerland led off the day with 5.5 million on Telemundo and 5.4 million on Fox Sports.

On Sunday, Netherlands-Japan averaged 8.8 million on FOX — the second-largest non-U.S. group stage audience on English-language television — and 8.4 million on Telemundo. Ivory Coast-Ecuador followed with 9.2 million on Telemundo and 4.7 million on FS1. Leading off the day, Germany-Curacao averaged 6.4 million on Telemundo and 6.3 million on FOX.

Through the opening weekend, coverage of the FIFA World Cup was averaging 7.5 million viewers on Telemundo (Nielsen + Adobe), up 234% from the same point in 2022. Telemundo is actually averaging more viewers on a combined basis than Fox Sports, which was averaging 6.7 million (up 152% from the full group stage average in 2022). Note as mentioned previously that Telemundo figures are for the match window only and that Fox figures include pre-match coverage.

The Adobe Analytics streaming audience for Telemundo is 2.5 million, so Fox would come out ahead on a Nielsen-only basis. NBCU’s position is that because Nielsen does not track its streaming viewership, its combined Nielsen + Adobe audience figures are comparable to the Nielsen-only figures of other networks.

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Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 18

Rick James Bible Owner says:

4 months ago

Just a few thoughts after everyone’s played a group match: UK Twitter, have you led me astray? I don’t ‘borrow streams,’ so I’ve never had the flavor of Darren ‘Fletch’ Fletcher on his TNT UK duties aside from all of the negative junk I see online. His ‘Japanese must think they’re taller than they are’ stuff before heading in a winning goal was the very, very,very second-worst call worldwide (behind Rafael Van De Vaart’s), but his knowledge of the NFL (Revis Island, Dak, the 28-3 comeback) and ease with his partner (whom I thought was Clinton Morrison, my bad ear) Owen Hargreaves (think vocally Lee Hendrie = Stan Collymore) has sort of endeared him here a bit. He’s Ian Darke to a younger American audience to a point already. Brits were doing the Dance of Joy when Fletch & Ally McCoist were broken up (who, in 2010, next to Martin Tyler, sounded like Flintheart Glomgold); maybe they’re wrong about Fletch? There was no reason to have Strong & Holden do USA-Paraguay & Brazil-Morocco, except for the Tirico/Vasgersian ‘Double Duty’ PR bounce. And keeping with the trope, Birmingham & Cranbrook’s Finest, Alexi Lalas has to have friction with a European desk counterpart (this time, Zlatan), a Tale as Old As 2014 (him and the German Lady was the worst). Otherwise, a credible enough World Cup for Fox so far (You would have to pay me to watch James Corden’s Wrap-up show)
- Richard says:
  
  4 months ago
  
  Yes, what an idiotic thing to say about the Japan team. Does he comment on the height of the Argentina/Colombia/Uruguay/Ecuador teams (all on average shorter than the Japan team: https://www.givemesport.com/world-cup-teams-ranked-height-tallest-smallest-football-soccer/)?
Dr. Richard says:

5 months ago

Do you know how the out of home is calculated for the World Cup? I seen watch parties with over 1,000 viewers. Is the OOH actually capturing that full 1,000 properly? I feel like its easier to do for the NFL and NBA where you might have 50-100 people at a bar to capture. How do they capture a whole WC watch party?
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  4 months ago
  
  The interesting thing about the ratings right now is that almost all of the comps are at least partially inflated, but the numbers themselves are still undercounted. World Cup probably more undercounted than most. I don’t think out-of-home is yet equipped to accurately pick up even the 50-100 you talk about for NFL and NBA, much less the kind of co-viewing you’re seeing at a World Cup.
  - ds says:
    
    4 months ago
    
    I would take the opposite perspective and I am curious why you think watch parties would be under-counted
    
    As I understand, a portion of Panel members have a small wearable (PPM) that they keep on whenever they are not at home. The PPM picks up subliminal tones in Nielsen-participating content and reports next time the PPM is charging and connected to home internet
    
    Watch parties often have game audio much louder than ambient which I assume would make PPM subliminal tone tracking easy. I would have guessed challenges may be where there is a lot of ambient noise that washes out subliminal signals from a relatively lower volume TV (e.g., a house party where the game is on at soft volume and there is a lot of other noise from socializing and/or music)
    - Jon Lewis says:
      
      4 months ago
      
      That’s a fair point, but when you get to watch parties of the size we see for really big events — so not just bars, where people might not even be paying attention to the games — I don’t see how the current measurement could possibly pick up the full breadth of that viewing.
Patrick T says:

5 months ago

Have you seen any numbers from FOX on Canada’s opener on Friday afternoon? Telemundo reported 5.5 M for Spanish language broadcasts.
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  5 months ago
  
  4.68M
  - Patrick T says:
    
    4 months ago
    
    Thank You!
Rick James Bible Owner says:

5 months ago

So much for the BBC’s assertion (it’s one article, before USA-Paraguay kicked off Friday, but go with me for a moment) of a ‘World Cup apathy’ in the US and that ‘I don’t think anyone knows a World Cup is on.’ It would’ve helped if the Beeb had their World Cup HQ anywhere on this Continent, and not the cozier (and more cost-effective, while giving 550 employees their P45s today) confines of Salford as opposed to ITV (with whom they’re sharing the World Cup with in the UK), whose actual base is in NYC. Forgive me, I saw that story last week and it stuck in my craw a bit.
ds says:

5 months ago

Thank you for all the data. Relative ratios for Spanish vs. English seem sensible – skewed more to Spanish for games on FS1 and/or teams with Spanish or Portuguese as the main language. Peacock having a meaningful share of Spanish viewership tracks with World Cup 2022. Two other reactions/questions:

1. Telemundo reporting game-only (~120 minutes) while FOX reports game-plus (~180 minutes) is very likely boosting overall averages for Telemundo vs. FOX. Do you recall if the companies also used different length windows in 2022?

2. I suspect OOH is a very high driver of viewership and growth. Do you know what percent of OOH rollout occurred by December 2022? IIRC, Nielsen only partially implemented OOH by then
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  5 months ago
  
  True, I should have stressed that distinction an additional time with the tournament-to-date averages. So you have Nielsen/Adobe/match window for one and Nielsen/telecast window for the other. Two totally different methodologies for each match, with both being strong in their own right. Messy to say the least.
  
  And I do believe they used different approaches in 2022.
  
  You’re correct, was partial implementation in 2022. Not sure the exact percentage.
  - ds says:
    
    5 months ago
    
    Thank you. I agree both are likely delighted by early returns. First World Cup with full OOH is a force multiplier to several other favorable factors
    
    NBCU methodology seems sensible. Game-only is common for big events. Telemundo OTA is unavailable to a sizeable minority of Hispanics and Peacock is a strong like-for-like. Not sure why FOX includes pregame – probably lowers their reported averages by 20% or more
  - Sean says:
    
    5 months ago
    
    Jon, do you see FOX releasing figures just for a match window?
ESL says:

5 months ago

Amazing numbers. This should continue through the tournament. Curious to see how high last nights game with Messi does. I think Messi is going to drive the viewership as much as the US. Surprised Fox couldnt get his next game in prime time (it’s a 1pm et start).
NaBUru38 says:

5 months ago

In Spain, Spain vs Cape Verde averaged 7.6 M viewers and a 60% share. France vs Senegal averaged 3.3 M viewers and a 27.6% share, also on La 1.

In Argentina, the Argentina vs Algeria match averaged a 34.8 rating (not share) on Telefe plus a 3.3 rating on TV Pública. Uruguay vs Saudi Arabia averaged a 18.8 rating on Telefe.

And here in Uruguay, Uruguay vs Saudi Arabia averaged a 32.7 rating (not share) on Canal 5.
- Sean says:
  
  5 months ago
  
  Over 20 million viewers for a non-U.S/Mexico match is crazy. I’m sure that even in their wildest dreams FOX and Telemundo didn’t expect these type of figures. I can definitely see 40 million happening for U.S or Mexico knockout game.
- Thomasssso says:
  
  5 months ago
  
  Hot start in France as well, where the match against Senegal, airing in primetime, reached 14 million. Very strong for a round robin match as the broadcasting network is not the “historic” TF1 but the second fodder M6, whose ratings typically average 60% to those of TF1.
  
  Of course France-Senegal is special for historical and cultural reasons and was a “derby” of sorts for many frenchmen of western african heritage. Plus the memories of the 2002 stunner. Still waiting for a France-Alegeria, one day. That one might set the country on fire.
  
  Hard to draw comparisons with the US as the TV universe is less scattered and cable holds less market share. In direct demographic terms, it would translate as 70 million viewers. So far above your typical AFC/NFC championship game. And ofc, as everywhere in Europe OOH is extremely strong for that kind of event.

SMW Podcast

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Nielsen has reprocessed the viewership for NBC’s four NFL games from Week 1-3 of the season. The Patriots-Seahawks Kickoff Game has been updated to 25.2 million, up from an originally-reported 25.1 million. The Week 1 Cowboys-Giants “Sunday Night Football” game has been updated to 25.82 million, up from 25.66 million. Colts-Chiefs the following week has been updated to 24.43 million, up from 24.29 million. Finally, Rams-Broncos in Week 3 has been updated to 20.96 million, up from 20.77 million.