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A combined US audience of 19.4 million average viewers for the USA-Ghana World Cup match on Saturday make it the largest US audience for a soccer match in history, topping the 1994 World Cup final match between Brazil and Italy.
| Most Watched Soccer Games in the U.S. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Date | Game | Network(s) | Viewers |
| 1 | 6/26/2010 | USA-Ghana | ABC/Univision | 19.4 million |
| 2 | 7/17/1994 | Brazil-Italy | ABC/Univision | 18.1 million |
| 3 | 7/10/1999 | USA-China (women) | ABC | 18.0 million |
| 4 | 6/12/2010 | USA-England | ABC/Univision | 17.1 million |
| 5 | 7/09/2006 | Italy-France | ABC/Univision | 17.0 million |
It would be interesting if there was a way to figure in all the people at all the bars and free outdoor viewing parties. I would venture to guess the viewership would go up by 5-10 million easy.
I am not being sexist, but typically women's sports do not have nearly as high viewership as men's. Is there a specific reason to why that match broke the mold and had so many viewers?
Here in The Netherlands they calulate with research how many people watched the game outdoors. (Work, bars, football stadions, etc)
The Dutch matches are watched by around 10 million people (outdoor people included). So that are very high numbers. 16,5 million people live in the Netherlands.
It was a confluence of events. The game was 1) the WC final 2) on US soil and 3) featured the national team. It was 4) heavily promoted by ESPN and 5) went into overtime and penalty kicks, meaning no one would have turned away halfway through the match. Oh, and 6) many of the girls were easy on the eyes…you know, to boost the M13+.
5-10 million watching at bars? uh, that's insane. You would need 10,000 outdoor viewing parties each with 1,000 people to get to 10 mil. There were a handful (dozens, not thousands) of outdoor viewing parties, which was cool, and the big ones got some TV coverage. Only a few outdoor viewing got into the thousands. As to bars, most bars fit a few hundred people max, and the typical bar much less. I live in a top ten metro area and yeah there were a few bars showing the game, but not that many. A few bars had an established reputation as international or soccer-friendly so that's where people congregated. A generous estimate is a few hundred bars around the country had a sizeable crowd. But outside of the big cities that # goes way down real quick.
The idea of 5-10 million watching in bars and events is crazy … doesn't pass the back of the envelope test.
I mentioned this on another post. With numbers like that for an event some 6-7 hours ahead of U.S. time, wait until 2014 when it is on our side of the globe. Some parts of Brazil is an hour ahead of eastern time. Potential primetime viewing in the U.S. Also, I am sure this will bring interest from FOX and NBC and their respective cable and sports networks when the next American TV contact comes up. Especially if the U.S. gets the 2018 World Cup.
In 1999 Team USA was top-ranked in the World and had one of the all-time best feamle soccer players (Mia Hamm). You kind of wait and see if the players exchange shirts at the end of the game. Brandi Chastain of Team USA didn't wait that long, though.
wjv123…. Firstly its not a 'woman's sport'. Just because it is not your number one sport does not mean its not mans games…..maybe picking a ball up and throwing it 50yards to then be tackled by men is your thing or perhaps having a ball thrown at you so you can then hit it and run round a diamond shape (similar to a game we call rounders and is played by children) is mor your thing.
Not only were you sexist but clearly blinkered. Wake up to the fastest growing sport in America.
Bashing other sports may not be the best way to make your point. Just sayin'.
the numbers are great for Team USA sporting events….my question is this….Team USA soccer now is in third place behind basketball in hockey in terms of tv ratings..however some would say team usa soccer is more popular…but they haven't gotten those epic numbers…but I feel like they might be..what do you all think?
Also Soccer was the fatest growing sport in the 70-90s…the market is saturated now…Ice Hockey is the fastest growing sport…..a poster on big-soccer showed a graph that had ice hockey at 60 percent growth year to year…the event of the world cup has been extremely successful…but I am not sure how that equates to fastest growing..and if you want to use Team usa hockey and domestic hockey as an indicator it is still growing fast….honestly wouldn't the NFL still be expanding since so many kids are playing football now that didn't ten years ago?
I am sure I will be called a troll for that..but then you make that claim and no one will say a word.
That is unreal….your country is up there at the top of the soccer loving nations
Someone sent me an email saying Seattle vs Philly got 430K viewers yesterday on ESPN2…
can anyone confirm that?
Could already be seeing a WC bump.
Henry is out of his contract..so he should be in MLS within a month..big big
Yes, football is (or how you call it soccer) is the number one sport in our country. Semi-finale 1998 vs Brazil is the most watched of all time on Dutch tv (11,7 million tv only).
What was the Pop then?
those numbers are amazing man.
Around 15,8 million
what other sports do you guys have?
All sports, but the big sports here are: Hockey and ice speed skating and maybe darts if you call that a sport.
He called it a woman's sport because he is talking about the women's soccer game having the highest rated soccer game in the country up until the USA-Ghana game. Genius!
I have no clue of what the numbers are here in Brazil, but it's probably insanely high for brazillian matches. I don't know one person that doesn't watch the games, the entire country stops. People don't have class, work or anything when the match is on.