Sunday night’s 5-2 victory for the United States over Japan in the Women’s World Cup Final was historic for a number of reasons. For starters, the U.S. is now the only team in the world to win the tournament three times. The American women ended the 16-year drought from their last title in 1999, but besides winning, the victory produced some historical numbers when it came to television ratings.
The game, which aired on Fox, scored a 15.2/27 metered market result, the highest number ever for a soccer game on a single network in U.S. television history. According to TV by the Numbers, 20.3 million Americans age 18-49 watched the final, which is more than the average viewership for this year’s NBA Finals. The 2011 Women’s World Cup Final drew an audience of 14.1 million.
Who says Americans don’t like soccer?
UPDATE: Sounds like the final viewership number is even higher than initially reported:
Unbelievable: Fox averaged 25.4 million viewers for last night's WWC US-Japan game. Official announcement coming on FS1 at 1pm.
— John Ourand (@Ourand_Puck) July 6, 2015
