USA-Nigeria on Fox drew a very respectable audience even with the second half of the match on opposite the first half of Game 6 of the NBA Finals. With Fox airing the game, USA-Nigeria averaged an audience of 5 million viewers making it the most-watched soccer game on the network eclipsing the record set last week when USA-Sweden aired.
Not only that, the match became the third most-watched women’s soccer game in U.S. television history following the 1999 Women’s World Cup Final between USA and Communist China and the 2011 final between the USA and Japan.
The game peaked at a very impressive 6.3 million viewers between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. ET.
The top markets for the game were St. Louis, Austin, TX, New York, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C.
Here’s the announcement:
ANOTHER U.S. MATCH, MORE RECORDS DURING FOX SPORTS’ FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP 2015™ COVERAGE5.0 Million Watch USA vs. Nigeria;
Audience Peaks at 6.3 Million Viewers Opposite NBA Finals
Match is Third Most-Watched Women’s Soccer Match All-Time;
Nearly Quadruples Third USA Match in 2011Vancouver, B.C. – The U.S. Women’s National Team beat Nigeria 1-0 in the teams’ third and final FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP 2015™ Group Stage match last night in Vancouver, British Columbia, to advance to the Round of 16. And, like the team’s first two tournament matches, the FOX broadcast broke multiple audience records.
USA-Nigeria audience highlights:
- The match attracted 5.0 million viewers on FOX, making it the most-watched FIFA Women’s World Cup Group Stage match ever and the most-watched soccer match ever on the network, breaking the marks set Friday for USA-Sweden (4.5 million) by 11%, according to Nielsen.
- USA-Nigeria is the third most-watched women’s soccer match of all time, trailing only the USA-China 1999 Women’s World Cup Final (17,975,000) and the Japan-USA 2011 Women’s World Cup Final (13,458,000). The Brazil-USA 1999 Women’s World Cup Semifinal drops to fourth (4.9 million), followed by USA-Sweden 2015 Women’s World Cup Group Stage (4.5 million).
- Audiences for each U.S. Group Stage match this tournament grew, beginning with 3.3 million for USA-Australia, which was televised on FOX Sports 1, to 4.5 million for USA-Sweden and 5.0 million for USA-Nigeria. The growth from Match 1 to Match 3 is 52%.
- The audience for USA-Nigeria (5.0 million) is +285% better than the audience for the third USA Women’s World Cup Group Stage match on ESPN in 2011 (1.3 million).
- Last night’s game powered FOX to its best Tuesday night in primetime on average audience (5.5 million viewers) since airing Game 6 of the 2014 World Series (10/28/14).
- FOX had its best Tuesday night among Adults 18-49 (2.0) since 2014 World Series Game 6 (10/28/14).
- Match audience began at 1.7 million viewers at 7:43 PM ET and peaked at 6.3 million from 9:30-9:45 PM ET, opposite the NBA Finals.
- The three USA Group Stage matches on FOX (2) and FOX Sports 1 averaged 4.3 million viewers, +207% over the 1.4 million viewers the three USA Group Stage games averaged in 2011 on ESPN.
- FOX Sports’ coverage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015™ through Monday, plus yesterday’s USA-Nigeria match on FOX (all matches for which national figures are available), is averaging 1,044,000 viewers, up +87% vs. the 559,000 viewers averaged on ESPN and ESPN2 in 2011 during Group Stage play.
- Top 10 markets for USA-Nigeria: St. Louis (6.5); Austin (5.1); New York (4.9); Milwaukee (4.8); Washington D.C. (4.7); Kansas City (4.6); Dallas (4.5); Atlanta, Hartford and Portland, Ore. (4.4).
- Top markets for three USA matches combined: St. Louis (4.8); Washington D.C. (4.4); Milwaukee and Richmond (4.1); Baltimore and Hartford (4.0); Kansas City (3.8); Providence (3.6); Atlanta, Austin, Dayton, New York, Norfolk and Portland, Ore. (3.5).
The next USA match will be in the Round of 16 and all of the games in that segment of the Women’s World Cup will be on Fox Sports 1 as the Fox mothership will be airing the U.S. Open over the weekend.
