The U.S. championship victory over Japan in the FIFA Women’s World Cup broke a major record: the most-watched soccer match in U.S. history.
The match, which aired
on Fox, pulled in a massive Nielsen 25.4 million viewers; the U.S. won 5-2 over Japan.
The previous mark was held by the men’s USA-Portugal World Cup match a year ago, which pulled in
18.2 million viewers. The USA-Japan match was 42% higher than the 1999 Women’s World Cup Final, which had 17.975 million viewers.
The entire tournament averaged 1.8 million viewers over
52 matches on three different Fox platforms -- the Fox broadcasting network, cable networks Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2. The game was 21% higher than the Women’s World Cup on ESPN and ESPN2
for 32 matches played in 2011.
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In 2011, the championship game, which also featured the U.S. and Japan, pulled in 13.5 million viewers.
Fox Sports Go set a new digital video record for
this year championship match, with 232,000 uniques -- the largest authenticated streaming audience in Fox Sports Go history.
For Sunday night overall, Fox averaged a Nielsen preliminary 5.3
rating/18 share among 18-49 viewers. ABC had a 1.0/3, followed by CBS with a 0.9/3; NBC at a 0.8/3; and Univision with a 0.5/2.