US warms up to soccer: England-USA FIFA World Cup game draws record viewers

The USA vs. England FIFA World Cup game that ended in a 0-0 draw was a big draw for Fox Sports on Friday night, pulling in more than 15.3 million viewers to set a record for the most-watched men’s soccer match on U.S. television, reports ‘Variety’.

Viewership of the 90-minute battle peaked from 3:30 to 3:45 p.m. (US Eastern Time) with 19.64 million viewers. The game’s average was strong enough to beat the previous record holder of 14.51 million who tuned in to see Brazil defeat Italy in the 1994 World Cup, which was held in the U.S.

Of course, it doesn’t come anywhere near the 99.16 million who watched Super Bowl 2022, the year’s final game of the U.S, National Football League (NFL), where the Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals.

The most watched Super Bowl was the XLIX edition in 2015. This match was won by the New England Patriots against the Seattle Seahawks, and a record 114.44 million viewers tuned into the game, to quote Statista.

Fox Sports, according to ‘Variety’, asserted that the viewership for Friday night’s FIFA World Cup game was also up significantly compared to this stage of the World Cup tournament in 2014, when the U.S. team faced off against Portugal.

That game, aired by ESPN, averaged 13.77 million viewers for the game itself per Fox, although it was widely reported in 2014 as 18.2 million. The audience figure grew to 24.7 million when about six million viewers from Univision’s Spanish-language coverage were factored in.

(IANS)