At least as far as the ratings are concerned, Team USA is a bigger draw in soccer than just about anywhere else.
The United States’ four World Cup matches attracted massive audiences across ESPN and Univision. The June 22 match against Portugal led the way with 24.7 million on the two networks, followed by 21.6 million against Belgium, 15.9 million against Ghana and 14.2 million against Germany. The numbers were all the more impressive considering the less-than-ideal timeslots — three of the four matches aired before primetime during the workweek.
Including the 2010 World Cup and 2011 Women’s World Cup, seven USA World Cup telecasts this decade have earned at least thirteen million viewers. By comparison, the USA basketball teams topped out at 12.5 million (men) and 11.4 million (women) during the 2012 Olympics. The USA women’s hockey team generated 4.9 million for a gold medal loss to Canada at this year’s Winter Olympics, while the men’s team saw its viewership peak at 4.1 million for a group play win against Russia.
Going much further down the list, the top USA audience of the 2013 World Baseball Classic failed to crack even one million viewers, earning 883,000 on MLB Network.
One would have to go back to the 2010 Winter Olympics to find the last time a USA national team attracted a World Cup-sized audience. That year, the Canada/USA men’s hockey gold medal game earned 27.6 million viewers on NBC — not just on par with the World Cup, but a larger audience than any soccer telecast ever in the United States.
Of course, that was a game with the gold medal on the line. The USA men’s soccer team has yet to advance past the Round of 16 and would presumably shatter the 27.6 million mark if it were to ever make the World Cup final. Outside of gold medal games, no USA hockey telecast since the “Miracle on Ice” has topped 11.7 million viewers — a mark held by a 1992 semifinal between the USA and the ‘Unified’ team (an assortment of former Soviet republics).
