Ask the majority of Americans to name the biggest sports competitions on the US airwaves. They will probably list the Super Bowl, World Series, March Madness, and NBA Finals as the most popular. But according to the latest analysis from FOX Sports’ head of strategy and analysis, Americans watched more of the World Cup than March Madness in 2022.
FOX Sports strategy and analytics guru Michael Mulvihill outlined some impressive numbers related to World Cup 2022 viewership in a file. One of the revelations was that Americans watched the World Cup more than March Madness, the annual college basketball tournament that wows sports fans each spring.
More World than March Madness? It is true
“On the English and Spanish networks, Americans spent more time this year watching the World Cup than watching March Madness,” Mulvihill said. “That’s not to diminish March Madness, but to show that the World Cup now more than holds its own compared to the founding events in US sports.”
The 2022 tournament in Qatar aired in the US on FOX in English plus Telemundo and Peacock in Spanish, and it was a record. For example, the 2022 World Cup final was the most watched men’s World Cup match on English-language television in the United States.
The Argentina-France final match would draw more than 26 million total viewers in both English and Spanish, just under the 27.3 million who tuned in to the 2014 final, making it the second most-watched match in the history of American television.
The colossal numbers of national viewership across television and the broadcast of the 2022 World Cup leave little doubt that soccer is an authentic part of American culture. Despite an unusual time of year for the tournament and congested group stage match days with games starting at 5 am ET, the average English-language audience increased 30% during 2018.
America’s return to the World Cup surely helped boost FOX’s ratings this time compared to 2018. The fact that perhaps the biggest name in the game, Lionel Messi, went all the way and ended up winning the In the end, it probably didn’t. It also doesn’t hurt to attract additional viewers. But even after the Netherlands knocked out USMNT in the round of 16, the numbers remained strong, with audiences up 48% from the end of the quarterfinals to the final.
Mulvihill concluded: “Our focus now turns to WWC 2023, Euro 2024 and MWC 2026 in North America, which will wipe out all US soccer viewing records. It’s a formidable lineup. Being the leader in the world’s major tournaments is clearly an enviable place to be.”
Image Credit: Imago
