World Cup Ratings: France & Argentina Semi-Final Wins Draw Record Viewership On Fox
France and Argentina are advancing to the World Cup finals after two semi-final matches that have now become the most-watched Men’s World Cup semi-finals on English-language television.
On Tuesday, Argentina shut out Croatia in a 3-0 match that drew 6.46M total viewers across the Fox broadcast and digital platforms. The match aired at 2 p.m. ET and viewership peaked from 2:30 to 2:45 p.m. ET with 8.2M.
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That’s a 43% from the audience for 2018’s Day 1 semi-final telecast of the France vs. Belgium match, which averaged around 4.5M total viewers.
A day later, France’s 2-0 win against Morocco on Wednesday, which aired at 2 p.m. ET, delivered 6.59M total viewers across linear and digital, peaking with 8.6M viewers from 3:30 to 3:45 p.m. ET. The audience was up 17% from the 2018 equivalent semi-final telecast of the England vs. Croatia match in Russia.
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Telemundo Deportes’ Spanish-language coverage of both matches also drew impressive viewership. Argentina vs. Croatia averaged 4.7M total viewers. About 1.7M came from streaming, making the match the second most-streamed FIFA game ever regardless of language.
As for France vs. Morocco, that match had an audience of 4.2M, which was up 63% compared France’s semi-final match against Belgium in 2018, which was watched by about 2.6M people on Day 1 of semi-finals. Wednesday’s match was up 39% vs. the Day 2 match in 2018.
France and Argentina will go head-to-head on Sunday, December 18, at 10 a.m. ET in the World Cup finals. On Saturday, Morocco and Croatia will compete for third place at 10 a.m. ET.
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