UPDATED: Pulisic, Balogun & Co.’s heroics at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium made World Cup television history. The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team’s opening match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup became Team USA’s most watched English-language and Spanish-language World Cup telecast ever.
The contest delivered 15.986 million viewers across Fox, Fox One and Tubi and another 8.9 million viewers on Telemundo, Peacock, and Telemundo streaming platforms, Fox Sports and Telemundo reported Saturday, citing Nielsen preliminary fast nationals.
Helped by the game being held in the U.S. with no time zone difference in play, the English-language delivery was up +106% from USMNT‘s comparable first group telecast at the 2022 World Cup, which was in Qatar. (U.S.-Wales, 7.763M on 11/21/22). The Spanish-language broadcast was up +156% vs. that game (3.5M).
USMNT’s dominant 4:1 win over Paraguay on the opening day of the tournament on American soil became the national team’s most streamed English-language match with 1.130M average minute audience. The overall English-language viewership peaked at 18.860M from 10:45 – 11 PM ET, at the end of the second half.
Team USA’s next match is against Australia on June 19.
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