It is perhaps no surprise given the time of year, but the first U.S. match of this rare winter World Cup was no match for their previous opener eight years ago.
Monday’s United States-Wales FIFA World Cup match averaged 8.31 million viewers on FOX, down from 11.1 million for the first USMNT match of the 2014 World Cup on ESPN. Keep in mind the 2014 match aired later in the day and during the traditional summer months. Viewership also trailed the team’s 2010 opener on ABC, which aired on a Saturday afternoon (13.0M).
Spanish-language coverage on Telemundo averaged 3.4 million (including additional streaming data not tracked by Nielsen), bringing the combined audience into the high 11 million range.
The English-language audience, which peaked at 9.43 million from 3:45-4 PM ET, is the third-lowest in the past nine USMNT World Cup matches — topping only matches against Algeria (6.16M) and Slovenia (5.20M) in 2010. Comparisons to prior years are complicated by the numerous changes in television since the U.S. men last played a World Cup match and the fact that this year’s tournament is taking place in the winter months.
The last time any U.S. team played in a World Cup was three years ago, when the women’s team opened with 2.63 million for a 13-0 rout of Thailand on FOX.
Austin, Texas, led all markets for the FOX telecast with a 5.8 rating and 24 share, followed by Cincinnati (5.4/21), Dallas-Ft. Worth (4.9/22) and San Diego (4.9/21). Philadelphia rounded out the top five at 4.6/17.
In other action, Sunday’s Ecuador-Qatar World Cup opener averaged 3.23 million on FS1 and 4. million on Telemundo (including additional streaming data not tracked by Nielsen) — up 88% and 164% respectively from the opening Saudi Arabia-Russia match in 2018.
Including pre-match coverage, the match averaged a 1.3 rating and 3.07 million on FS1 and a 1.3 and 3.04 million on Telemundo for a combined 6.1 million.
(Nielsen estimates from Fox Sports, Telemundo, Programming Insider 11.22)
