United States’ World Cup win over Paraguay draws nearly 25 million on U.S. TV
The US men’s national team opened its 2026 World Cup campaign with a stirring 4-1 win over Paraguay, and — in a signal of pent-up audience demand — fans in the United States tuned in en masse, delivering an average of 24.886 million viewers through the game on Fox, Telemundo and their streaming platforms, per preliminary overnight data released by the networks and Nielsen.
Fox had an average of 15.986 million viewers throughout the game on its broadcast and simulcasts on its Fox One and Tubi streaming platforms, including a peak of 18.86 million viewers between 10:45 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET. Telemundo had an average of 8.9 million viewers on its linear network, along with its streaming platforms, including Peacock.
The numbers extend an early trend: Fans are tuning in, in a big way. The 2026 World Cup opener between Mexico and South Africa drew an average of 6.31 million viewers on Fox, the largest U.S. English-language TV audience ever for a World Cup opening match.
Per Sports Media Watch, that game was also the “most-watched non-U.S. World Cup group stage match ever on English-language TV,” which is a well-qualified superlative but also indicative of massive audience interest in the first men’s World Cup held in the U.S. since 1994.
For comparison: The first group-stage game played by the U.S. in the 2022 World Cup — which was played on a Monday afternoon in November in Qatar, not a Friday night in June in Los Angeles — drew nearly 12 million viewers (8.3 million on Fox, plus 3.4 million on Telemundo) for a 1-1 draw with Wales.
Speaking of Telemundo, the network’s broadcasts during the 2026 World Cup’s first few days have cheekily addressed the new mid-half “hydration break” by extending the broadcast through the stoppage in play, rather than going to full-screen ads like Fox. Telemundo includes on-screen commercial branding wrapped around live footage of the players and fans during the break, along with commentary from on-air talent pointedly noting that they are not taking a full advertising break.
It should be noted that the early World Cup numbers benefit, like all sports TV, from revamped Nielsen measurement systems.
Still, the audience numbers — for the U.S., for Mexico, for global powerhouses like Brazil, England and France, and for nations with less of a high profile or American fan base — will remain a recurring subplot of the tournament, particularly if the United States advances beyond the initial 32-team knockout round, which they are statistically near-certain to reach after Friday’s win, per The Athletic’s proprietary projections.