Fox Sports 1 kicked off the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup on Tuesday, and sure enough, the buzz from the Women’s World Cup carried over to the men’s game. The US’s 2-1 win over Honduras drew 986,000 viewers, making it the most-watched men’s soccer game in the nearly two year history of Fox Sports 1.
That’s a pretty remarkable achievement, given that FS1 airs every marquee match of the Champions League aside from the Final, has an MLS window that has done pretty well this year, and also airs its share of USMNT friendlies. This match also topped the previous high Gold Cup group stage viewership, which was 821,000 viewers for US-Cuba in 2013…on the Fox broadcast network. It’s astounding to see an FS1 viewership total top a similar Fox broadcast viewership total in just two years.
The US’s run in the Gold Cup will continue along on Friday as the USMNT take on Haiti at 8:30 PM on Fox Sports 1. Given the day of the week this match is airing on, it likely won’t match the viewership for the Honduras match, but it’ll still likely be a respectable number. The US finishes up the group stage on Monday at 9:30 against Panama, and the deeper the team progresses into the tournament, the higher viewership will likely climb.
Barring a massive collapse from either side, the US wouldn’t face off with Mexico until either the final or third place playoff, so the opportunity for a monstrous viewership number will have to wait another two weeks.
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