USA-Mexico Friendly scores for Fox Sports 1

The USA-Mexico friendly on Fox Sports 1 was a test in many ways for the network. We already told you what we thought of the presentation which was encouraging. Another encouraging sign was the ratings and viewership for the match.

For Wednesday’s match which resulted in the patented “Dos a cero” score in favor of the U.S., Fox Sports 1 garnered an average of 806,000 viewers which was the most-watched soccer game in the history of the network which dates back to August 2013. World Soccer Talk says USA-Mexico outdrew the NHL Stanley Cup Playoff game on NBCSN (Chicago-Nashville) which was on at the same time.

The game also drew the largest average audience for a US Men’s National Soccer Team friendly on an English language network in 2015 thus far according to SoccerAmerica:

USA vs. Mexico (April 15) on Fox Sports 1: 806,000 viewers
USA vs. Panama (Feb. 8) on ESPN: 674,000 viewers
Denmark vs. USA (March 25) on ESPN2: 400,000 viewers
Switzerland vs. USA (March 29) on Fox Sports 1: 261,000 viewers
Chile vs. USA (Jan. 28) on Fox Sports 1: 254,000 viewers

While Fox Sports 1 was happy with its viewership, it also had 0.4 rating in the coveted 18-49 demographic.

Overall, USA-Mexico drew 4.5 million viewers across three networks. UniMás which had the Spanish language rights had the largest audience with an average of 2.76 million viewers. Univision Deportes which simulcast the game had 890,000 viewers.

By comparison, last year’s USA-Mexico friendly averaged 3.9 million viewers on UniMás alone and 1 million on ESPN.

[Soccer America/World Soccer Talk]