The FIFA Women’s World Cup ended with the largest soccer audience in U.S. TV history.
The United States/Japan FIFA Women’s World Cup final drew a 12.9 final rating and 25.4 million viewers on FOX Sunday, up 74% in ratings and 88% in viewership from the same matchup on ESPN in 2011 (7.4, 13.5M) and up 13% and 41%, respectively, from United States/China on ABC in 1999 (11.4, 18.0M), the last two times the U.S. made the final. Viewership peaked at over 30 million from 8:30-8:45 PM.
The match also earned 1.3 million viewers on Telemundo, bringing the combined number to 26.7 million.
The United States’ win ranks as the most-watched soccer telecast ever in the U.S., topping the previous record of 26.5 million for last year’s Germany/Argentina final on ABC and Univision. The previous high for a women’s match was the 18.0 million for the 1999 final.
It also ranks as easily the highest rated and most-watched soccer telecast ever on a single U.S. network, topping the previous highs of 11.4 for the 1999 final and 18.2 million for last year’s United States/Portugal group play match on ESPN.
For the year, USA/Japan ranks as the fifth-most watched sporting event outside of the NFL. Only the three-game College Football Playoff and the Duke/Wisconsin NCAA Tournament title game (28.2M) scored larger numbers. The combined audience topped every NBA game since Celtics/Lakers Game 7 in 2010 (28.2M on ABC), every Major League Baseball game since Red Sox/Cardinals Game 4 in 2004 (28.8M), and every hockey game since the Canada/United States final in the 2010 Olympics (27.6M on NBC).
(Sun. viewership from SI.com, additional info from twitter.com/austinkarp)
