Even with the United States and Mexico on the sidelines, the Copa America final delivered big numbers on Univision and Fox Sports 1.
Sunday’s Chile/Argentina Copa America final earned a combined audience of 9.8 million viewers on Univision, Univision Deportes Network and FS1, according to Nielsen fast-nationals — up more than 550% from last year’s final between the same teams on beIN Sport and beIN Sport en Espanol.
Coverage on Univision and UDN earned 6.8 million viewers (+580%), the largest audience ever for Copa America on any network. It was also the largest audience for men’s soccer on a single network since the 2014 World Cup final.
FS1 scored just shy of 3.0 million for its coverage (+542%), Fox Sports’ largest audience ever for a men’s soccer match that did not involve the United States. That includes coverage on the FOX broadcast network. Viewership peaked at 3.7 million from 10:30 PM ET to the conclusion.
Chile’s win, which went to penalty kicks, drew a larger audience than any NHL game in the United States since Game 6 of the 1972 Stanley Cup Final (10.9M). It had roughly the same number of viewers as the Fiesta Bowl on ESPN in January and was within one million of Villanova/Oklahoma in the Final Four (10.5M).
In other action, Saturday’s Colombia/United States third place match had 2.8 million on Univision and UDN, the largest audience for the third-place match on any network. Viewership for English-language coverage on FX was not immediately available.
The complete Copa America tournament averaged 2.9 million viewers on the Univision networks, more than quintupling last year’s average on beIN Sports en Espanol. The full tournament average includes pre-match windows. Comparable averages on Fox Sports were not available.
(Numbers from Univision, foxsports.com)
