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U.S. TV audience for World Cup final reaches 61 million
Fox and Telemundo reported a combined 61 million viewers for the July 19 final between Spain and Argentina. The English broadcast set a new record for the most-watched soccer match in U.S. history.
Jul 21, 7:09 PM·1m read3 sources
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Fox and Telemundo reported that more than 61 million people in the U.S. watched the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina on July 19. Fox's English-language broadcast averaged 38,937,000 viewers. That figure broke the record set earlier in the tournament when the United States played Belgium.
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The Spanish-language broadcast on Telemundo averaged 22.6 million viewers. The match was also carried on the Peacock streaming service. Fox reported that viewership peaked at 51,685,000 during extra time when Spain scored the only goal of the match.
The final was one of nine matches that surpassed the previous English-language record of 16.7 million viewers set during the 2022 final. Fox and Telemundo hold the U.S. television rights for the tournament, which is being played across the United States, Mexico and Canada.
A Telemundo executive told Sports Business Journal that early tournament success prompted NBC to consider bidding for both English and Spanish rights to future events. In addition to Fox, ESPN and streaming services YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime are also reported to be evaluating bids for the 2030 and 2034 tournaments.
The next two Women's World Cup tournaments will be broadcast exclusively on Netflix in both English and Spanish.
