The U.S. men’s national team’s Copa América opener against Bolivia delivered some seriously impressive TV numbers for Fox.
Sunday’s U.S. win drew 3,165,000 viewers, making it the most-watched non-World Cup soccer broadcast ever on Fox, and the most-watched English-language Copa América broadcast ever in the United States.
The broadcast peaked at 4,013,000 viewers between 6:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. ET, with the match kicking off at 6 p.m. ET.
Those numbers don’t include the Spanish-language broadcast on Univision, which will push the total viewership even higher.
The ratings indicated that interest in this year’s Copa América could be higher than the last time the U.S. hosted the tournament in 2016. The USMNT’s group stage matches in the Copa America Centenario averaged 1,521,000, with Sunday night’s number more than doubling that figure.
The tournament opener last Thursday between Argentina and Canada averaged 1,056,000 viewers on FS1, up 444% from the 2016 tournament’s group-stage average on FS1 of 194,000.
The USMNT’s next game will be Thursday against Panama at 6 p.m. ET on Fox. The group stage concludes on Monday against Uruguay at 9 p.m. ET on FS1.
Sunday is typically the strongest night of the week in terms of TV viewership, so it will be interesting to see if Fox can maintain the momentum through the next two USMNT matches.
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