FOX Sports Smashes Non-USMT Viewership Record For Opening Of World Cup

FOX Sports saw record viewership for the opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the U.S. (Photo by Tom Weller/picture alliance via Getty Images)

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Viewership in the U.S. for the opening match of the Men’s FIFA World Cup smashed records for FOX Sports.

The match, which saw Mexico top South Africa 2-0 had an average of 6.309 million viewers across FOX, FS1, and Tubi, making it the most-watched group stage match telecast in English where the U.S. Men’s Team (USMNT) was not playing in U.S. history, according to Nielsen’s fast nationals, Adobe, and Tubi analytics

Even with Nielsen implementing their Big Data + Panel measurement system, which has skewed favorably given streaming, the numbers were still incredible. The match was up a whopping +97% compared to the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup non-USMNT group stage telecast on FOX, which averaged 3.21 million viewers.

The opening match on Thursday peaked with 8.014 million viewers from 4:15-4:30 pm ET.

The match was the most-streamed English-language open match telecast in FIFA World Cup history.

The viewership numbers have to be more than welcome for FOX Sports, given the remarkable investment in the Men’s FIFA World Cup.

Over the FOX Sports family of networks, they will broadcast 104 matches of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Of those, 70 will air on FOX, more than double the number that aired in 2022. The other matches will air on FS1 and Tubi. Every match is streamed live and on demand in both the FOX One and FOX Sports apps.

Group stage continues on Friday. See the entire FOX Sports broadcast schedule.