The 2026 World Cup has produced some truly astounding ratings numbers, and that continued in a pair of epic semifinals.
The top four teams in the FIFA rankings met in the World Cup Final Four with France facing Spain and Argentina squaring off against England. Throughout the tournament, both Fox Sports and Telemundo have set record after record for soccer viewership in English- and Spanish-language telecasts across America. And when those audience numbers are combined, the total reach would place it at the top of televised sporting events outside the NFL’s showcase games.
Viewership peaked during the Round of 16, with the host countries, the United States and Mexico. The USA-Belgium game was watched by a combined 50.1 million viewers, while the Mexico-England match drew an audience of over 44 million. Those games are on par with the NFL’s conference championship games and Thanksgiving contests, which are only behind the Super Bowl in terms of annual television broadcasts. In fact, the USA-Belgium game would rank third in sporting events over the last 12 months, only behind Super Bowl LX at 124.9 million and the Chiefs-Cowboys Thanksgiving game that saw 57.2 million people tune in.
While failing to reach those heights, the two World Cup semifinal matchups obliterated previous records for the round.
Telemundo‘s audience numbers were 9.8 million viewers for France-Spain and 11.4 million for Argentina-England. Fox Sports reached 13.1 million for France-Spain and 16.9 million for Argentina-England. That adds up to a combined average audience of 25.6 million across both games.
To put that number in perspective, it would surpass Game 5 between the Knicks and Spurs, which drew 24.5 million viewers and was the most-watched NBA game since Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. The Argentina-England combined audience of 28.3 million is even higher than Fox’s World Series Game 7 audience of 26.9 million last fall between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays. It would fall slightly behind the 30.1 million viewers that watched the CFP National Championship Game between the Indiana Hoosiers and Miami Hurricanes.
The 2026 World Cup has seen an incredible jump in ratings this year. It’s certainly being boosted by being based in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, as well as new Nielsen measurements for out-of-home viewing that have lifted all sporting events. But Telemundo was up 136% for its World Cup semifinal coverage four years ago, while Fox’s was up 131%. Those kinds of gains are unprecedented.
The highly anticipated final between Argentina and Spain will also set a new record. The only question is by how much.
About Matt Yoder