On Friday evening, the United States men’s national soccer team demonstrated its potential for a strong performance in the upcoming 2026 World Cup. Playing at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, the American squad delivered an impressive display. They maintained an assertive approach from start to finish, controlling the ball effectively during their 4-1 triumph against Paraguay in the opening match of their group stage.
The four goals scored by the USMNT represented their highest tally in any single World Cup fixture. Furthermore, a statement from Fox Sports PR indicated that an average of 15,986,000 viewers tuned in to watch the USMNT across Fox, Fox One, and Tubi, also marking an unprecedented high.
Indeed, this broadcast became the most-viewed USMNT telecast ever. Per Fox, it also stood as the most-watched men’s World Cup group stage telecast in English-speaking U.S. history.
Considering an additional average of 8.9 million individuals who watched on Telemundo/Peacock, the combined audience reached nearly 25 million, as reported by Steven Goff of Yahoo Sports.
According to Fox, the match involving the Group D competitors reached its peak viewership with 18,860,000 spectators between 10:45-11 p.m. ET. This average viewership represented a 106% increase compared to the USMNT’s initial game in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which drew an average of 7,763,000 viewers during a 1-1 draw against Wales on November 21 of that year.
Fox’s viewership report referred to Nielsen’s preliminary fast-national figures, Adobe Analytics, and information from its proprietary streaming platform, Tubi. It is pertinent to highlight that Nielsen adopted an updated methodology last autumn, integrating its conventional survey panel with “Big Data” sourced from smart televisions and set-top boxes. This change is crucial when evaluating the escalating numbers, along with the detail, noted by Sports Media Watch, that the 2026 World Cup represents only the second tournament since Nielsen commenced incorporating out-of-home viewing data into its projections.
An intriguing point is the existence of higher reported audience figures for the USMNT’s 2-2 stalemate with Portugal during the 2014 World Cup group stage in Brazil. However, as elaborated by Richard Deitsch on Saturday, it seems ESPN, which aired the 2014 match, and Fox, which broadcast the recent USMNT game on Friday, employed distinct methods for calculating their ratings.
“Both broadcasters will probably assert they hold the record,” commented Deitsch, who hosts The Sports Media Podcast, in a post on X.
From the outset, this year’s World Cup has suggested that numerous viewership milestones could be surpassed. The tournament’s inaugural game, played on a Thursday afternoon between Mexico and South Africa, garnered an average of 6,309,000 viewers as Mexico achieved a 2-0 victory in Mexico City, according to Fox, which referenced the identical set of ratings data earlier on Friday.
Consequently, Fox indicated that the Mexico-South Africa encounter became the most-watched men’s World Cup opening fixture and the most-viewed non-USMNT World Cup group stage telecast in U.S. English-language history.
