Fox Sports drew a record TV audience for a group-stage game at the Women’s World Cup on Wednesday night.
The U.S. team’s 1-1 draw against the Netherlands averaged 6.43 million viewers on Fox, making it the most watched contest in the group stages of any Women’s World Cup in the United States (with the caveat that this year’s tournament is the first that includes out of home viewing in Nielsen averages). The prior record was 5.34 million viewers for U.S.-Chile in 2019. The U.S. women’s first game this year ranks third with 5.26 million viewers.
Wednesday’s audience includes streaming viewership of just under 197,000 people, a high for a group-stage match on Fox. Additionally, a Spanish-language broadcast on Telemundo and Universo averaged about 1.17 million viewers, for a total of 7.59 million viewers (not including streaming of Telemundo’s coverage on Peacock).
The U.S.-Netherlands match also ranks seventh among all Women’s World Cup matches in the United States.
The USWNT’s third group match, however, is unlikely to reach those heights: It’s scheduled for a 3 a.m. ET/midnight PT start on Aug. 1, owing to the large time difference between the United States and host countries Australia and New Zealand.
The early returns for the USWNT mirror gains Fox Sports had for the 2022 Men’s World Cup, which saw the U.S. men return to the competition. The USMNT’s group-stage games averaged 11.71 million viewers, the highest ever on English-language TV and a 10 percent improvement in viewers vs. 2014 (the U.S. missed the World Cup in 2018).
