Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 in extra time on Sunday, July 19, and the numbers that followed were unlike anything American sports television has recorded for soccer. A combined 62.8 million viewers watched the World Cup final across Fox, Telemundo, and Peacock, making it the most-watched soccer match in U.S. history by nearly 17 million viewers.
According to Variety, Fox's English-language broadcast averaged 38,937,000 viewers, the highest ever for a soccer telecast on U.S. English-language television. The previous record was held by the U.S. Men's National Team's loss to Belgium in the round of 16, which drew 33,089,000 viewers. The final surpassed that mark by more than five million.
The peak came at 5:45 p.m. ET, when 51,685,000 viewers were watching as Spain sealed the victory. That moment arrived in the 106th minute, when substitute Ferran Torres scored the only goal of the match after Argentina had held Spain scoreless through 90 minutes of regulation play.
The Hollywood Reporter noted that Fox's match-only audience was 42.5 million, a figure that topped all but two NFL broadcasts on the network last season, the NFC Championship and the Thanksgiving game.
On the Spanish-language side, Telemundo and Peacock brought in 23.9 million viewers, also a record, breaking the previous Spanish-language high of 23.2 million set just two weeks earlier for the Mexico-England round of 16 match.
The growth from previous World Cups is steep. The 2022 final in Qatar between France and Argentina drew 16,784,000 viewers on Fox. The 2018 final in Russia drew 11,441,000. Sunday's final was up 132 percent from 2022 and up 240 percent from 2018.
For the full tournament, Fox Sports averaged 7.74 million viewers across Fox, FS1, and Tubi over 104 matches, more than double the 2022 average of 3.59 million and nearly triple the 2018 figure of 2.77 million.
The semifinals were also record-setting. Argentina's comeback win over England drew 28.3 million combined viewers, with Fox's 16.9 million making it the most-watched FIFA Men's World Cup semifinal in English-language history. Spain's shutout of France drew 22.91 million combined.
The final also featured the first-ever halftime show staged on the field at a World Cup, produced by FIFA and Global Citizen. Coldplay's Chris Martin curated the show in his role as international curator of the Global Citizen Festival, with Done+Dusted producing. Performers included Madonna, Justin Bieber, BTS, Shakira, Burna Boy, the PS22 Chorus with Coldplay, the New York Philharmonic, and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, along with the Muppets.
Inside Spain, the final averaged 15.7 million viewers and an 87.1 percent audience share across RTVE's La 1, regional broadcaster 3Cat, La 2, and DAZN, reaching a cumulative 20.1 million people.
