In the United States, Sunday’s US women’s national soccer team victory in the 2019 World Cup ranked as one of the highest-rated soccer telecasts in the history of the sport.
About 14 million people watched on TV in the U.S. on Sunday, according to Nielsen ratings.
With Fox’s streaming viewership added to the total, about 14.3 million people tuned to the network for the US-Netherlands match.
An additional 1.6 million viewers watched it in Spanish on Telemundo.
The strong ratings back up what was observable on Sunday: Widespread enthusiasm for the US women’s national team.
The match was played in France, which meant it happened early in the day in the US — potentially tamping down total viewership. There is usually a greater number of people at home in the evening watching TV.
But the ratings were still quite strong despite the midday time slot.
Last year’s men’s World Cup final between France and Croatia averaged 11.4 million viewers on Fox, which means the US women drew a 22 percent bigger audience in the states.
In 2015, the Women’s World Cup final was played in the evening and was a huge ratings draw, with about 25 million viewers watching on Fox.
The network said Sunday’s face-off ranked as the “most-watched soccer match on English-language television in the U.S.” since the 2015 final.
Viewership during the match peaked at 19.6 million viewers.
