US, Mexico World Cup matches officially set TV viewership records

The United States men's national team officially broke the record for most-watched soccer telecast in U.S. history twice in a row.

As disappointing as Monday's 4-1 round of 16 loss to Belgium was for fans, the pregame excitement helped attract 33.086 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media research. The audience peaked at 41.033 million during the 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET window.

According to Fox, the World Cup rightsholder in the U.S., it was the most-watched telecast of any kind, on any network, since Super Bowl LX brought in 125.6 million.

The United States had previously set a new mark in their round of 32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose final TV audience tally came to 26.4 million.

Americans are tuning in to see more than just the home team.

Nielsen Media research also confirmed this week that 21.742 million viewers watched the Mexico-England round of 16 match Sunday on Fox. That was the most-watched non-USMNT World Cup telecast in English-language U.S. history.

Adding the audiences from Telemundo and Peacock, the match averaged a whopping 44.84 million.

For context, those final numbers blew away the New York Knicks' title-clinching Game 5 win of the NBA Finals (24.5 million) and rivaled the AFC and NFC Championship Games, which had 48.6 million and 46.1 million on average, respectively.

--Field Level Media