How The 2023 Women’s World Cup Drew Record Audiences In U.S. Markets Despite Challenges

Katie Campione
·5 min read
19

England and Spain will make history Sunday when they go head-to-head in the 2023 Women’s World Cup final, with both teams making their first championship appearances.

No matter who prevails, it’ll be one for the history books. Unfortunately, soccer fans in the U.S. will have to peel themselves out of bed in the wee hours of the morning, since the match is taking place at 6am E.T./3 a.m. PT.

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The early morning (or even middle of the night) kickoffs have been one of the bigger challenges that put U.S. markets at a bit of a disadvantage when it came to broadcasting the 2023 Women’s World Cup. That and the fact that the USA was unexpectedly eliminated in their round of 16 match against Sweden after entering the tournament favored to win their third consecutive title.

Lucky for Fox, which owns the U.S. English-language broadcasting rights, the country’s growing interest in soccer and, more generally, in women’s sports (both of which have been heavily influenced by the USWNT’s previous wins) helped buoy the tournament.

“What’s been proven in this World Cup is that the Women’s World Cup really is here to stay as a major event,” Michael Mulvihill, Fox’s president of insights and analytics, told Deadline, calling the challenging time zones “just a little bit of a speed bump.”

“I don’t think that it affects the longer term popularity,” Mulvihill added.

Due to the vastly different time zones, Fox worked closely with FIFA to ensure that a majority of the USA’s matches would air during primetime on the east coast to maximize viewership.

The USA played two of its three Group E matches in primetime and scored record audiences in the process. The USA’s 1-1 draw with the Netherlands, which was their second group stage match played in primetime, is now the most-watched WWC group stage telecast ever with 6.4M people watching.

However, a bumpy performance from the USWNT in the early matches made it difficult for FIFA to continue to prioritize them. Their final group stage match was scheduled for 12 a.m. PT/3 a.m. ET — a difficult sell for most U.S. markets.

“My expectation was all the top markets would be on the West Coast, because it was a midnight start for the West Coast, which is late but not completely unreasonable,” Mulvihill said. “And what ended up happening was that the audience grew throughout the game, and most of the top markets were actually Midwestern markets, which kind of came as a surprise to me.”

The average audience for that match was only about 1.3M, though it’s worth mentioning that’s still the most watched overnight telecast in Fox history. In fact, the average audience for the USA group stage games was the highest it’s ever been at 4.3M viewers (including that overnight game).

The group stage matches also drew strong viewership for NBCUniversal, which owns the Spanish-language broadcasting rights in the U.S. Across Peacock and Telemundo, the USA group stage matches averaged 911,000 total viewers, which is up 57% over 2019.

The USA was eliminated in its round of 16 match against Sweden, but not before delivering one more strong audience for Fox. The match, which began at 5 a.m. ET, delivered about 2.5M viewers throughout the game. In all, the four USA matches averaged nearly 3.8M viewers, which is up 2% from 2019, despite the fact that two of those matches were played overnight in major U.S. markets.

After two consecutive World Cup titles, it was certainly a surprise when the USWNT was eliminated so early in the competition, and U.S. viewership took a toll as a result.

“Had the U.S. made it all the way to the finals, it would have played four games in prime. The two that were [already] played in prime, I think, would have been even surpassed once we got to the knockout stages. The stakes would have been higher,” Mulvihill said.

Even without the USA in the competition, Fox has still reported strong audiences throughout the rest of the tournament. Last week, Spain’s 2-1 quarterfinal win over the Netherlands drew 1.8M viewers. For a primetime sporting event, that may not seem like a huge audience, but it’s actually the second-most watched non-USWNT Women’s World Cup Quarterfinal match ever on U.S. English-language television behind only Germany vs. Sweden’s 1.9M in 2019.

There is no doubt that these record-breaking audiences signal a rising interest in soccer across the U.S., which will likely come to a head when North America hosts the Men’s World Cup in 2026. Not only does that make it easier than it’s ever been to prioritize matches for the U.S. market, but seeing these matches played across North America will also invigorate U.S. viewers, especially in host cities.

But, U.S. audiences have also been paying more attention than ever to women’s sports, which also helps explain why the Women’s World Cup has been able to sustain strong viewership in U.S. markets despite several challenges.

Viewership for nearly every major women’s sporting event has been up this year. In April, the NCAA women’s basketball championship game delivered 9.9M viewers, marking the largest audience on record for a women’s college basketball game. It was also a 103% increase over the 2022 championship game. According to ESPN, the game also had the largest audience ever for any college event on ESPN+ to date.

“It just feels like, after 50 years of Title IX and 50 years of girls and young women getting more and more opportunities to play sports, you’re seeing this breakthrough in interest in women’s sports as far as television properties,” Mulvihill said. “I feel like that’s actually the big story of this tournament.”

The 2023 Women’s World Cup final between Spain and England will air on Fox on Sunday at 3 a.m. PT/6 a.m. ET. For Spanish-language coverage, all matches are available on Peacock and Telemundo.

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