NEW YORK – FOX Sports’ ratings of World Cup final peaked at 14,620,000 viewers on the FOX broadcast network Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research.
France’s 4-2 win over Croatia averaged 11,824,000 viewers across FOX and streaming sources.
The championship game was the most-watched non-NFL telecast of any kind on FOX in 2018, and the most-watched telecast on television since the NBA Finals among men, women and adults 18-34 and 18-49, according to Nielsen.
It was the first final not to go to extratime since 2002, and the first World Cup title encounter where a team held a three-goal lead before the 90th-minute mark since 1970.
The FOX and FS1 coverage of the World Cup, airing in morning and early afternoon time slots in the U.S., accounted for all 20 of the top-20 shows among men 18-49 in English-language televsion over the last month. In addition, the World Cup delivered the 15 most-watched soccer matches since the 2015 Women’s World Cup.
With a live-match average-minute audience of 552,000 on streaming platforms, the 2018 final delivered the largest authenticated Sunday event in FOX Sports history, surpassing the 2018 NFC Championship by 18% (468,000 AMA).
The World Cup delivered the top three authenticated streaming events in FOX Sports history (ranked in order of live-match average-minute audience):
* Croatia-England semifinal: 830,000
* France-Belgium semifinal: 657,000
* Brazil-Belgium quarterfinal: 615,000
For the entire tournament, World Cup content delivered 3.6 billion total minutes and 558 million total video views across streaming, digital and social platforms. The previous record for a one-month period was October 2017, with 1.5 billion minutes. Streaming alone amassed 2.6 billion minutes, 87 million views and 9.1 million unique streamers.
FOX Sports digital reached 38 million unique visitors for World Cup content across FOX-owned and operated platforms, with FOXSports.com scoring 28.3 million visitors for tournament coverage.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the 2018 World Cup on FOX/FS1 produced the following U.S. television marks:
* The highest Household Delivery for any Semifinal since at least 1990: Croatia-England – 4,153,000 – Saturday, July 14
* The most-watched Quarterfinal on record: Croatia-Russia – 6,386,000 viewers on FOX, Saturday, July 7
* The most-watched Quarterfinals day on record – Saturday, July 7
* The most-watched weekday non-U.S. Round of 16 match on record: Croatia vs. Denmark – 5,966,000 on FOX, Sunday, July 1
* The most-watched non-U.S. Group Stage match on record on English language television: Germany vs. Sweden – 5,452,000 on FOX, Saturday, June 23
