USMNT World Cup opener draws record 24.9 million TV viewers

A home World Cup opener turned into a rare shared live-TV moment for the U.S. Men’s National Team, with 24.9 million viewers tuning in for the 4-1 win over Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The figure reflected more than a strong result. It showed how a primetime match played on U.S. soil, with English- and Spanish-language coverage running side by side, can pull a national audience into the same window at the same time.

Fox Sports reported 15,986,000 viewers across FOX, Fox One and Tubi, while Telemundo said its telecast drew 8.9 million viewers across Telemundo, Peacock and its streaming platforms. The English-language audience peaked at 18.86 million from 10:45 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET. On both sides of the broadcast divide, the match set records: it was the most-watched USMNT World Cup telecast ever in English and the most-watched USMNT World Cup match ever in Spanish.

The numbers also showed how much distribution mattered. The game became the most-streamed English-language USMNT match ever on Tubi, posting a 1.13 million average minute audience. That reach was amplified by the absence of the usual World Cup timing penalty for U.S. viewers, with the match staged in the United States and airing in prime time. Sports Media Watch described it as the first U.S. World Cup match on home soil in more than three decades, and likely the team’s first primetime World Cup match on broadcast television.

The on-field performance helped sharpen the audience. Folarin Balogun scored twice, becoming the first U.S. player since 1930 to net multiple goals in a World Cup game, and the 4-1 margin gave viewers a decisive result rather than a tense opener. Compared with the U.S. team’s first group-stage match at the 2022 World Cup against Wales, the English-language audience rose 106 percent from 7.763 million, while the Spanish-language audience climbed 156 percent from 3.5 million.

The opener also reset the benchmark for the rest of the tournament. Telemundo said Mexico’s June 12 win over South Africa drew 12.1 million viewers and became the most-watched World Cup game in Spanish-language history, while Fox’s Mexico-South Africa coverage averaged 6.309 million viewers, the most-watched non-USMNT group-stage telecast in English-language U.S. history. Fox Sports said its 2026 World Cup coverage will include 104 matches, with 70 on FOX. The U.S. next faces Australia on June 19, and if the team keeps winning, the audience ceiling could keep rising with it.