Even on a Friday afternoon, the 2026 FIFA World Cup group stage match between the United States and Australia brought in another impressive audience for Fox and Telemundo.
Fox revealed preliminary numbers on Saturday showing that the USMNT-Australia match averaged 14.781 million viewers, making it the most-watched Friday afternoon telecast on any network since the USMNT-England World Cup match on Black Friday in 2022 (15.38 million viewers).
The USMNT’s 2-0 win over Australia made for the third-most-watched men’s World Cup group stage match. One of those matches was the USMNT’s first game of this World Cup vs. Paraguay, which averaged a record 18.037 million viewers (the preliminary number was 15.986 million).
Additionally, the USMNT-Australia telecast peaked at 19.169 million viewers (4:45 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET), which is even higher than the preliminary peak audience of 18.86 million reported for the USMNT-Paraguay match.
G’day: The preliminary numbers are in and America showed out. 🇺🇸
The @USMNT’s 2-0 victory over Australia delivered 14,781,000 viewers on FOX, ranking as the best Friday afternoon telecast on any broadcast network since 2022. 🏆⚽️📺 pic.twitter.com/8b6cYJ1Hy3
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) June 20, 2026
Telemundo’s preliminary numbers revealed an average audience of 5.9 million viewers for the USMNT-Australia match on the Spanish-language broadcast. The USMNT-Paraguay match had a preliminary number of 8.9 million viewers.
Interestingly, the Brazil-Haiti match actually had a higher preliminary audience, averaging 6.3 million viewers.
🔹 Another strong matchday. Yesterday’s preliminary numbers are in.
✔️ 5.9 million preliminary Total Audience Delivery (TAD) viewers for USA vs. Australia, up +27% vs. Team USA’s second FIFA World Cup™ Group Stage match in 2022.
✔️ USA vs. Australia generated 3.1 million… pic.twitter.com/L9w2xjbKjm
— NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises (@NBCUTelemundo) June 20, 2026
In total, the Fox and Telemundo telecasts combined to average roughly 20.7 million viewers per the preliminary numbers. And as was the case with the USMNT-Paraguay data, the viewership total should rise once the final numbers are released.
The viewership numbers declined from the USMNT-Paraguay match, but that’s no surprise due to the time slot, even on a national holiday with Juneteenth. A Friday afternoon is not going to lead to better viewership numbers than a primetime audience would (USMNT-Paraguay began at 9 p.m. ET on the previous Friday, for example). As Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder wrote, the USMNT’s schedule in this World Cup could’ve been more optimized for an American viewing audience.
It’s also important to note that this is the first World Cup under the Big Data+ methodology, which has generally boosted live viewership of sporting events by roughly 15%.
USMNT’s final match in the group stage will be against Turkey on Thursday, June 25, at 10 p.m. ET. The USMNT has already clinched the top spot in Group D, while Turkey has already been eliminated. So, neither team has anything to play for but pride, and it will be interesting to see if that’s detrimental to the television ratings. And even if that happens, the viewership numbers for the USMNT’s to-be-determined match in the knockout stage on July 1 (8 p.m. ET) should more than make up for it.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.