U.S.-Belgium World Cup Match Sets Ratings Record, With 46M Viewers

The U.S. and Mexican teams are now out of the FIFA men’s World Cup, but American rights holders Fox and Telemundo finished the round of 16 with a historic flourish, leaving them in strong position for the event’s final matches. 

Fox, the tournament’s English-language rights holder in the U.S., and Telemundo, the Spanish-language rights holder, each posted unprecedented audience numbers during the round of 16. Among the individual results:

• The U.S.-Belgium match on July 6, an ugly 4–1 defeat for the Americans, averaged 33.1 million viewers on Fox according to final data from Nielsen, setting a record for the most-watched soccer telecast in U.S. history. The broadcast was also the most-watched non-NFL telecast on any U.S. network since Game 7 of the 2016 World Series between the Cubs and then-Indians, also aired on Fox. 
• Telemundo averaged 12.9 million viewers for that U.S.-Belgium match. Put together, the combined average of 46 million for that match neared the average audience of 47.4 million for January’s NFL conference championship games, and underscored the idea of this World Cup being the only thing to truly rival NFL-type audiences. 
• The July 5 match between Mexico and England, a dramatic 3–2 win for England, combined to average 44.9 million viewers across Fox and Telemundo, including 23.2 million average on Telemundo that set a network record for soccer.
• The round of 16 overall averaged 14.5 million viewers on Fox, up 216% from the comparable average from the 2022 event in Qatar, held in the late fall due to climate issues. The latest figure also is the most-watched men’s round of 16 in English-language history.
• On Telemundo, the round of 16 averaged 11.1 million, up 265% from the comparable average in 2022. 
• Overall, the entire 2026 World Cup has generated 98.4 billion minutes of consumption on Fox, FS1, and Tubi—more than quadruple the comparable figure from 2022, and nearly triple the final figure from four years ago. On Telemundo, the situation is somewhat similar as it has generated 61 billion minutes of consumption across its platforms, beating the combined figures from the 2018 and 2022 World Cups by 41%. 

“Bigger field, better time zones, way more games, broadcast TV,” Fox Sports president of analytics and insights Mike Mulvihill tweeted Friday morning. 

Next Steps

The latest audience figures further the position that even with the U.S. and Mexican teams out of the tournament, Fox and Telemundo have already banked more than enough audience gains to make 2026 a truly historic result. 

After Thursday’s win by France over Morocco to open the quarterfinal round, just seven of the scheduled 104 World Cup matches remain. 

“It’s really mission accomplished for Fox and Telemundo,” Crakes Media president Patrick Crakes tells Front Office Sports. “How you do in the early rounds has a lot to do with where you net out on the budget, and I think they’re in great shape. And when the next quarterly earnings come out for both of their parent companies, that will be reflected.”

The latest viewership results will also help inform a high-profile sale of the U.S. media rights for the 2030 and 2034 men’s World Cups—a process set to begin soon after the completion of this tournament. 

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