Fox Sports is hoping to continue to ride the on-the-field success of the U.S. Women’s National Team heading into Sunday’s (August 6) knockout round match against Sweden.
Fox has averaged 4.3 million viewers for its three US Team Group Stage telecasts, a record for USWNT Women’s World Cup English-language telecasts, according to Nielsen numbers supplied by Fox Sports. The viewership is up 11% from the 2019 USWNT Group Stage average from France.
Fox Sports president of insights and analytics Mike Mulvihill said Fox’s ratings numbers will continue to build alongside the U.S. Team’s success in seeking an unprecedented tournament three-peat.
“The viewership for the three U.S. matches have so far been record-setting,” Mulvihill told Multichannel News. “We love the way that the country is responding to the national team and the ratings are a payoff for the team’s sustained success.”
Overall, Fox and FS1 averaged a combined 610,000 viewers for the first 46 games of the Women’s World Cup tournament, down 37% compared to the 2019 tournament’s group stage performance and down 33% compared to the 2015 tournament. This year's Women's World Cup viewership is up 9% and 143% compared to the 2011 and 2007 Women’s World Cup tournaments, respectively, according to Nielsen.
While the U.S. Team is fueling Fox Sports’ Women's World Cup ratings, Mulvihill is confident that viewers will continue to tune into the tournament even if the U.S. Team doesn’t make it to the finals. He pointed to the strong performance of the 2022 men’s World Cup finals sans the U.S. team as an example of the overall appeal of international soccer tournament play on television.
“We’ve seen on the men’s World Cup side what happens when the US Team is eliminated,” Mulvihill said. “There is a certain moderation of viewers [without the US team], but I think the numbers that we’ve seen for non-US games so far have actually been pretty good, and I think we will continue to see some interest in some of the stronger countries that would go on, whether that’s France, Sweden or whomever it might be. We would still be optimistic.”
