The third-most viewed men’s soccer match on American television was the United States 0-0 draw with England in the World Cup, which attracted 19.98 million people for English- and Spanish-language broadcasts.
The game, which began at 2 p.m. EST on Friday, attracted 15,377,000 viewers on Fox, the most for a men’s soccer broadcast in the English-speaking United States. According to Fox, the figure was 6% higher than the 14.51 million who watched Brazil defeat Italy on penalties in the 1994 championship game at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California; the game began at 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 17, and 14,510,000 people watched it on ABC.
Germany’s victory over Argentina in the 2014 World Cup final was watched by 22.67 million
4.6 million people watched the United States vs. England game on Telemundo, a part of NBCUniversal owned by Comcast Corp. The United States 2-2 group-stage draw with Portugal in 2014, watched by 6.5 million on Univision with a 6 p.m. EDT start in mid-June, and Brazil’s 2-0 win over Serbia on Thursday, a 2 p.m. EDT game seen by 5.7 million on Thanksgiving, ranked higher on the list of most watched Spanish-language World Cup telecasts in the United States since at least 2006.
Only two men’s soccer matches received more viewers on American television, according to Nielsen: Germany’s victory over Argentina in the 2014 World Cup final, which was watched by 22.67 million people, and Spain’s triumph over the Netherlands in 2010, which was watched by 21.36 million people. Both of those games were played on Sundays in July and were broadcast by ABC and Univision. In both years, the games began at 2:30 p.m. EDT and 3 p.m. EDT, respectively.