LOS ANGELES—The United States National Women’s Team raised more than the World Cup trophy on Sunday’s final match, they also raised the bar on TV and streaming views for soccer matches.
The final match of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup that saw the U.S. prevail 2-0 over the Netherlands delivered nearly 14 million viewers on the traditional Fox broadcast, and peaked at 19.595 million across all Fox and streaming services. In total viewership, the match out-performed the 2018 men’s World Cup final between France and Croatia by 22%.
It was also a record day for streaming numbers of a women’s soccer match. The average minute audience was 289,000 viewers, making it the most streamed FIFA Women’s World Cup final in history, up 402% from the U.S. victory over Japan in 2015.
However, streaming was the only advantage that this year’s final had over the 2015 final, which averaged 25.4 million viewers, still the largest audience for a soccer match in U.S. history, men or women. The 2015 match did take place in Canada, allowing for it to peak in primetime, while the 2019 match took place in France, airing on Fox between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET. When compared to a previous Europe-based final in 2011 though, the 2019 match was 4% higher.
For the entire tournament, 2019 posted a 2% increase in ratings from 2015 and 11% up from 2011. U.S. matches against France in the quarterfinals and Chile in the group stage were the most watched matches in those rounds ever for the Women’s World Cup. Fox’s digital content for the entire tournament saw nearly one billion minutes consumed.
Fox’s soccer coverage continued on Sunday, as the U.S. Men’s National Team’s game against Mexico in the Concacaf Gold Cup final was the most watched non-World Cup soccer telecast on FS1 ever with more than 3 million viewers on traditional and streaming platforms.
