A home World Cup and the associated American-friendly time zones are paying off in a big way for Fox and Telemundo.
Through Sunday’s matches, viewership for the 2026 FIFA World Cup is up a whopping 152% across Fox and FS1 versus the Group Stage average during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Fox Sports is averaging 6.66 million viewers per game, with record-setting viewership for the U.S. Men’s National Team opener versus Paraguay predictably setting the pace. That game averaged 18.04 million viewers per Fox’s updated figure, which includes first-party measurements from streaming platform Tubi, and Nielsen’s full Big Data + Panel measurement.
Telemundo is averaging 7.5 million viewers per game through Sunday’s matches, which is up 234% versus the network’s World Cup audience at the same point in 2022, per data from Sports Media Watch.
As for games not involving the United States, Brazil-Morocco led the way with 10.02 million viewers on Fox Saturday afternoon. It was the most-watched non-USMNT Group Stage game of all time for an English-language World Cup broadcaster in the United States.
Off and running: Through Sunday, FIFA World Cup 2026 is averaging 6,656,000 viewers across FOX, FS1 & Tubi. 🏆⚽️📺
Up +152% from the FIFA World Cup 2022 Group Stage telecast average across FOX & FS1 (2,638,000 viewers). 📈 pic.twitter.com/4wGdVRJ0eg
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) June 16, 2026
Notably, the Haiti-Scotland match that led out of Brazil-Morocco averaged 5.99 million viewers while going head-to-head with the New York Knicks’ NBA Finals-clinching Game 5 on ABC.
Other highlights for Fox include 8.84 million viewers for Netherlands-Japan on Sunday, which is the second most-watched non-USMNT Group Stage game on English-language television behind the aforementioned Brazil-Morocco match. Ivory Coast-Ecuador set an FS1 soccer record with 4.72 million viewers the same day.
Telemundo is having a similarly strong start to the World Cup, often beating Fox head-to-head for the same matchups. The Spanish-language network averaged 11.2 million viewers for Brazil-Morocco, a figure that also includes streaming viewership on Peacock. It should be noted, Telemundo’s figures do not include the pre-match window, while Fox’s do.
Telemundo averaged 6.0 million viewers for Haiti-Scotland, 8.4 million viewers for Netherlands-Japan, and 9.2 million viewers for Ivory Coast-Ecuador.
As with all viewership comparisons to year’s past, this World Cup does not offer a true apples-to-apples look at viewership. This year’s tournament is the first World Cup to be measured with Nielsen’s expanded out-of-home viewing sample and the new Big Data + Panel methodology, both of which have served to increase audiences for live sports compared to prior years.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.