If down big from 2014, Fox Sports’ World Cup ratings are holding up well compared to 2010.
The United States is absent from this year’s tournament, its first time missing the World Cup since 1986. Excluding U.S. matches, this year’s group stage still declined 28% in ratings and viewership from 2014 (1.8, 2.86M).
Keep in mind the 2014 World Cup had the advantage of TV-friendly timeslots. Versus the non-U.S. average in 2010, the last time the tournament aired in the morning and afternoon hours, ratings fell a tick (from 1.4) but viewership actually increased 1% (from 2.04M).
Over on Telemundo, the group stage averaged 2.3 million viewers across TV and digital platforms. Univision’s comparable average four years ago was not available.
All averages are for the match window only (i.e., excluding pre-match coverage).
As for the knockout stage, Croatia-Demark had 5.91 million viewers on FOX Sunday, including the pre-match window. That is a 0.3% increase over the comparable window in 2014 (Costa Rica-Greece: (5.90M) and a 19% jump over 2010 (Argentina-Mexico: 4.96M).
Croatia’s win, which peaked with 7.6 million from 4:30-4:45 PM ET, was the most-watched soccer match on English-language television since the 2015 Women’s World Cup Final. It had 250,000 viewers on Fox Sports GO, bringing the total audience up to 6.2 million.
Earlier in the day, Russia-Spain had 5.12 million on FOX — down 11% from Netherlands-Mexico in 2014 (5.7M), but up 36% from 2010 (Germany-England: 3.8M). The FOX telecast, which peaked with 5.5 million from 12:30-12:45 PM ET, had a combined audience of 5.4 million including streaming.
On Saturday, Uruguay-Portugal drew 5.88 million on FOX (+13%), peaking at 7.1 million from 3:30-3:45 PM ET. France-Argentina drew 4.69 million (-17%), peaking with 6.2 million from 11:45 AM-Noon.
Telemundo did not disclose figures for the individual matches. The network averaged 3.2 million for the four weekend telecasts (excluding the pre-match window).
