Driven by record numbers for the United States’ title run, the Women’s World Cup scored a double-digit increase over 2011.
The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup averaged 1.8 million viewers across the Fox Sports family of networks, a figure that likely includes pre-match coverage for most if not all of the telecasts — up 21% from the 2011 tournament on ESPN and ESPN2 (1.5M). Keep in mind this year’s tournament featured 20 more games than in 2011.
It should be noted that several matches in this year’s World Cup had the benefit of airing in primetime, including the final. No match in 2011 began after 2:45 PM ET. In addition, several matches aired on the FOX broadcast network, while every match in 2011 aired on cable.
Fox Sports’ average included the largest soccer audience ever on a single U.S. network, Sunday’s 25.4 million for the United States/Japan final. Overall, seven of the twelve largest Women’s World Cup audiences on record (dating back to 1995) took place this year.
By comparison, last year’s men’s World Cup averaged 4.6 million viewers across ESPN/ABC and 3.5 million on Univision. Averages for this year’s Spanish-language coverage on Telemundo and NBC Universo were not immediately available.
St. Louis was the top market for the full tournament, averaging a 1.9 rating. Washington, D.C. (1.85), Richmond (1.7), Kansas City (1.65) and Sacramento (1.6) rounded out the top five.
(Numbers from Fox Sports)
