It was not as big a draw as two years ago, but the Gold Cup final held up well opposite a diminished — but still dominant — Olympics.
Sunday’s United States-Mexico Concacaf Gold Cup final averaged 7.6 million viewers across Univision, TUDN and FS1, down 14% from the same matchup in 2019, which did not face any notable competition (8.8M), but up 85% from United States-Jamaica in 2017 (4.1M). The competing Summer Olympics averaged 16.0 million across NBC’s various platforms, including 13.0 million on NBC alone.
The United States’ win trails only 2019 as the most-watched Gold Cup final in a decade.
The Univision networks averaged 5.7 million viewers, down just 3% from 2019 (5.9M). Viewership peaked at 6.21 million from 10:30-10:45 PM ET. English-language coverage on FS1 fell a steeper 35% from 2.88 million in 2019 to 1.87 million this year.
The Gold Cup final was no match for last month’s UEFA “Euro 2020” final on ESPN and the Univision networks, which averaged a combined 9.4 million, including 6.49 million for ESPN alone. Keep in mind the Euro final did not face any notable competition, airing in a mid-afternoon timeslot.
Compared to last month’s Copa America final, Univision viewership rose sharply from 3.5 million. FS1 averaged 1.84 million for the Copa America final, but that figure includes pre-match coverage — meaning that the match window number likely exceeded Sunday’s 1.87 million.
The complete Gold Cup averaged 1.4 million across Univision’s networks, up slightly from 2019 (1.3M).
[Nielsen estimates from Univision, Nielsen]
