The United States men’s national team may have seen its 2026 FIFA World Cup journey end against Belgium, but the match drew a television audience that few sporting events in America have ever matched.According to sports media analyst Jon Lewis, the USMNT’s Round of 16 loss to Belgium on July 6 averaged 33.09 million viewers on FOX, including pre-match coverage. That made it the most-watched soccer broadcast ever on a single U.S. network. The audience was also larger than every non-NFL sporting event since Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. Viewership reached its highest point during the 9:15 p.m. ET quarter-hour, when 41.03 million people were watching. The numbers show just how much attention the World Cup generated on home soil, even though the United States could not advance to the quarterfinals.
Malik Tillman and USMNT draw historic audience against Belgium
The Belgium-United States match set records across both English- and Spanish-language broadcasts.FOX reported an average audience of 33.09 million viewers, comfortably ahead of the previous soccer record on a U.S. network. On the Spanish-language side, Telemundo averaged 12.9 million viewers when Nielsen-measured television audiences and Adobe Analytics streaming figures were combined.Telemundo’s official Nielsen figure, which included pre-match coverage, was 5.2 million. When combined with FOX’s Nielsen audience, the match reached an official television audience of 38.3 million viewers.Even without including all NBCUniversal streaming viewers, the match outperformed every college basketball game and every NBA game recorded during the Nielsen people-meter era. Jon Lewis also noted that comparisons with older events should be made carefully because Nielsen has changed how it measures audiences in recent years, including the addition of out-of-home viewing and new smart-TV data.
Most-watched sports broadcasts comparison
Cristiano Ronaldo, Lamine Yamal and knockout-stage matches boost World Cup ratings
The strong numbers were not limited to the United States. Earlier on Monday, Portugal’s match against Spain averaged 10.05 million viewers on FOX. The same game attracted 8.7 million viewers across Telemundo and Peacock. On Tuesday, Switzerland versus Colombia averaged 8.81 million viewers on FOX, while Argentina’s comeback win over Egypt drew 7.30 million.Across the entire Round of 16, FOX averaged 14.5 million viewers per match, including pre-match coverage. Telemundo averaged 11.1 million viewers for its match windows. Compared with the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, those figures represented increases of 216% for FOX and 265% for Telemundo.The biggest draws of the tournament were clearly the United States and Mexico. Mexico’s loss to England averaged 21.7 million viewers on FOX and 23.2 million on Telemundo. Among matches that did not feature either country, Brazil’s game against Norway was the most watched, drawing 14.57 million viewers on FOX and 13.8 million across Telemundo and Peacock.The audience figures underline how much interest the 2026 World Cup generated in the United States. While the USMNT’s run ended earlier than fans had hoped, the team’s final match became one of the most-watched sporting events of the century and showed the growing reach of soccer across the country.
