The final of the Confederations Cup pulled in nearly 4 million viewers on ESPN Sunday afternoon.
The United States’ loss to Brazil drew a 2.2 U.S. rating (2.6 cable) and 3.9 million viewers on ESPN, making the match the third-most viewed U.S. National Team match ever on ESPN. Only two World Cup matches involving the U.S. National Team drew more viewers — a ’94 first round tilt against Columbia (4.8 mil), and an ’02 quarterfinal against Germany (5.3 mil).
To put the numbers in perspective, USA/Brazil comfortably surpassed the numbers for both Stanley Cup Final telecasts on Versus (1.7 and 3 million for Game 3, 1.8 and 3.4 million for Game 4). Additionally, the match finished with a higher rating than 20 NBA playoff games and more viewers than 6 MLB playoff games.
The match also finished well ahead of both the NBA Draft the previous Thursday (2.6 mil) and a Yankees/Mets telecast that aired on ESPN on Sunday night (3.3 mil).
USA/Brazil could not match the rating for last year’s Euro 2008 final on ABC (2.3), but surpassed that match in viewership (3.9 million to 3.8 million).
Impressively, in a week of huge audiences for cable programs (including over 10 million viewers for the BET Awards and Jon and Kate Plus 8), USA/Brazil managed to finish as one of the 20 most viewed programs of the week on cable.
