Women’s World Cup viewership is trending above four years ago, no small feat given the shift in time zones.
FIFA Women’s World Cup matches averaged 969,000 viewers across FOX and FS1 through the group stage, up 6% from 2015 (916K) and up 73% from 2011 on ESPN and ESPN2 (559K).
Viewership has increased despite a much weaker schedule. With this year’s tournament taking place in France, no match has started later than 3 PM ET. Four years ago, when the tournament took place in North America, a number of matches aired in primetime.
Friday’s United States-Sweden match had 3.74 million viewers on FOX, down 26% from the third U.S. match in 2015, against Nigeria (5.04M), but up 197% from the third match in 2011, which was also against Sweden (1.26M). This year’s match aired on a weekday afternoon, the 2015 match aired in primetime, and the 2011 match aired on cable (ESPN).
Two of the three U.S. group stage matches declined from 2015, no surprise given the 2015 matches each aired in primetime. The lone exception was U.S.-Chile, the only one of the three matches that did not air on a weekday afternoon.
Shifting to the knockout stage, Sunday’s France-Brazil round of sixteen match had a 2.3 overnight rating on FOX, the highest yet for a non-U.S. Women’s World Cup match on the network. Overnights for the comparable France-South Korea match in 2015 — which aired on FS1 — were not available.
Saturday’s Norway-Australia match had a 1.6, ranking second among non-U.S. matches in this year’s tournament. Overnights for the two FS1 matches were not immediately available.
[Numbers from Fox Sports, Fox Sports PR/Twitter 6.23, Deadline 6.21]
