The Women’s World Cup continues to increase dramatically over 2011.
The United States/Germany FIFA Women’s World Cup match drew a 4.7 final rating and 8.4 million viewers on FOX Tuesday night, figures that include 20 minutes of pre-match coverage — up 114% in ratings and 147% in viewership from the USA/France semifinal on ESPN in 2011 (2.2, 3.4M). The 2011 match began in the morning.
According to Sports Business Daily writer John Ourand, the match portion of Tuesday’s telecast earned 9.6 million viewers. Viewership peaked at 12.1 million from 8:30-8:45 PM ET, cruising past the previous high of 8.1 million during USA/China.
USA’s win earned the third-largest Women’s World Cup audience on record (dates back to 1995), trailing only the finals in 1999 (18.0M) and 2011 (13.5M). It also drew the largest audience ever for a World Cup semifinal on a single network — regardless of gender — with the caveat that last year’s semifinals drew a combined 12.4M and 12.2M on ESPN and Univision.
Again including pre-match coverage, USA/Germany had a 3.0 rating among adults 18-49 — up 50% from USA/China on Friday (2.0) and the highest demo rating on FOX since the season finale of Empire in March (6.9).
Kansas City and St. Louis tied as the top markets Tuesday night, with a 9.3 rating. Washington, D.C. (9.0), Austin, TX (7.8), and Cincinnati and Columbus (7.4 in each) rounded out the top five. Notably, #1 market New York City made the top ten with a 6.8 rating.
The United States’ six Women’s World Cup matches have averaged 5.3 million viewers across FOX and Fox Sports 1, up 121% from the comparable five matches on ESPN in 2011 (2.4M). The full tournament has averaged 1.3 million on the Fox Sports family of networks — up 45% from 2011 (899K).
(Tue. numbers via Fox Sports, twitter.com/ourand_sbj, TV Media Insights)
