England’s upset victory over Mexico to advance to the World Cup quarterfinals delivered nearly 45 million viewers on Sunday night across Fox Sports and the viewers for the Spanish-language telecast on Telemundo and Peacock.
Fox Sports grabbed 21.7 million viewers for its telecast of England-Mexico, while Telemundo and Peacock saw an even bigger crowd, 23.2 million. That makes it the most-watched World Cup telecast in U.S. history for a match that did not include Team USA. Viewership on Fox peaked in the final 15 minutes with 25.7 million viewers.
Viewership of the global soccer tournament viewership stayed strong over the Independence Day holiday weekend with more than 15.5 million viewers tuning in to Fox for Friday’s wild game that almost saw tiny Cabo Verde take out longtime World Cup contender Argentina.
The crowd for the July 3 Argentina-Cabo Verde game peaked with 22.958 million viewers from 8:30-8:45 p.m. ET. Argentina took the lead only a few minutes into the 30 minutes of extra time, but Cabo Verde answered to tie the tight match back up. The tournament this year marks Cabo Verde’s first World Cup appearance.
The Colombia-Ghana match saw an average of 10.387 million viewers. Colombia won 1-0 in its second-ever World Cup knockout-stage win and first since 2014 in Brazil.
Australia-Egypt averaged 8.849 million viewers. Egypt beat Australia 4-2 in a penalty shootout to advance to the knockout round for the first time at the World Cup. This is only Egypt’s fourth time participating in the World Cup, and first since 2018 in Russia.
On Telemundo, the June 30 Mexico-Ecuador match delivered 18.9 million viewers.
Overall, the World Cup round of 32 averaged 9.548 million viewers across Fox and Fox Sports 1. That’s up +262% from the telecast average for the complete World Cup 2022 group stage on Fox and Fox Sports 1 (2.638 million viewers).
World Cup coverage continues Thursday with France vs. Morocco at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT. Spain plays Belgium at 3 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. PT on Friday at Los Angeles Stadium here in Los Angeles. The Norway vs. England and Argentina vs. Switzerland games on Saturday round out the quarterfinals.
(Pictured: England player Harry Kane)
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