U.S. soccer match against Wales draws 11.7M viewers
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The U.S. soccer team's return to the World Cup in a match against Wales drew 11.7M viewers on English- and Spanish-language broadcasts.
That marks a decline in viewership from prior American World Cup openers, though Fox (NASDAQ:FOX) (NASDAQ:FOXA) is seeing an unsurprising surge in viewership in early matches from 2018, when the United States failed to qualify.
The match with Wales was seen by just over 8.3M viewers on Fox's English-language broadcast, and by 3.4M for the Spanish-language broadcast on NBCUniversal's Telemundo, Telemundo digital and Peacock (NASDAQ:CMCSA).
Some 563,000 watched on Fox streams, while there were 1M streams on Telemundo and Peacock.
Fox's average viewership for its first three telecasts, of just over 4M, was up 193% from 2018, where it drew 1.374M viewers over the same span with no U.S. entry. (Telemundo's first four matches drew 2.6M, up 73% from four years ago.)
But the 2014 U.S. opener in Brazil drew 15.9M viewers across ESPN and Univision, and the 2010 U.S. opener in South Africa drew 17.3M viewers on ABC and Univision.
Next up for the U.S. men's team (and Fox and Telemundo's audiences in that fan base): The Americans take on England in a high-stakes match Friday at 2 p.m. ET.