Fox Sports’ World Cup ratings continue to gain on 2010 — if still down double-digits from 2014.
Wednesday’s Croatia-England match had a 3.7 and 5.9 million, down 14% in ratings and 13% in viewership from Argentina-Netherlands four years ago (4.3, 6.8M), which was the most-watched semifinal ever on a single network.
Croatia’s upset, extra-time victory peaked with 7.5 million.
Figures are for the match portion only. Including pre-match coverage, the audience of 5.50 million was down just 1% from 2014 (5.51M) and up 61% from Spain-Germany in 2010 (3.43M).
On Tuesday, the France-Belgium semifinal had a 3.0 and 4.8 million — down 29% in ratings and 28% in viewership from Germany’s rout of Brazil in 2014 (4.2, 6.6M) but up 25% and 38% respectively from Netherlands-Uruguay in 2010 (2.4, 3.5M). Again, figures are for the match portion only.
Notably, the semifinal matches took place in earlier windows than four years ago, though in both cases the telecasts aired in the afternoon on a weekday. This year’s matches started at 2 PM ET, compared to a 4 PM ET start in 2014.
Entering Sunday’s final, the complete FIFA World Cup has averaged a 1.8 rating and 2.82 million viewers on FOX and FS1 — down a third in ratings and 34% in viewership from 2014 (2.7, 4.29M) and down a tick and 6% respectively from 2010 (1.9, 2.99M).
This year’s World Cup ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched through the semifinals since 2006 (1.4, 2.06M).
Keep in mind this year’s World Cup is the first since 1986 not to involve the United States. Excluding U.S. matches, this year’s tournament is down 18% in ratings and 21% in viewership from 2014 (2.2, 3.56M) and up 13% and 16% respectively from 2010 (1.6, 2.44M).
Comparable figures on Telemundo — for the semifinals and the tournament as a whole — were not immediately available.
[Numbers from Nielsen, Fox Sports PR 7.12]
