Viewership in the U.S. for the opening match of the Men’s FIFA World Cup smashed records for FOX Sports. The match, which saw Mexico top South Africa 2-0 had an average of 6.309 million viewers across FOX,

Fox and Tubi averaged just under 16 million viewers for the game on Friday night with the 9pm ET start (15.986 million), marking the best USMNT English-language audience ever. That figure is up 106% from the USMNT’s first match again Wales in the 2022 World Cup,

Both outlets, and their respective streaming partners, set ratings records for group stage matches involving the U.S. and Mexico.

When the World Cup kicked off last week, FIFA introduced hydration breaks, a mandated 3-minute window for players to rest. Many networks are utilizing this pause in the match as a new advertising window.

Considering the Super Bowl is just one day and that the World Cup spans longer than a month, the viewership data favors the latter. In the 2026 tournament, the viewership is predicted to surpass 5 billion people across the world, making that an average of 128.2 million per day across 39 days.

The USMNT's 4-1 win over Paraguay drew 15.986 million viewers, making it the most-watched men's World Cup telecast in English-language U.S. history.

Viewership for previous World Cup finals was only a little higher than for a strong Monday Night Football game, but with matches on U.S. soil, media executives are hopeful this will be the year soccer breaks through.

Some FIFA World Cup country codes are confusing viewers.

For a city known as a soccer stronghold, Nielsen data shows Seattle’s 2022 World Cup TV viewership was surprisingly average among host cities, writes FYI Guy.