Yesterday’s Women’s World Cup semifinal, which saw the U.S. team emerge with a hard-fought victory over England, was a ratings score for Fox.
The game posted a 5.5 household rating in overnight metered markets, the best rating of the tournament for the network by that measurement. For comparison, Friday’s quarter final against the host nation France posted a a 4.9 and ended up with 6.12 million total viewers, meaning that Tuesday’s game could well be somewhere near the 7 million mark. The final viewership figure and detailed ratings will be available later today.
The U.S. women’s national team made it through yesterday’s game, but just barely. The score was 2-1, but it all could have been so different, as England had a goal controversially ruled out by VAR for offside, and then proceeded to miss a penalty kick later in the second half.
The early ratings for Tuesday’s semifinal are significantly up on the same measurement from the 2015 semi against Germany, and only just down on the same metric for the 2015 final against Japan, which turned out to be the most watched soccer match in U.S. history with 25.4 million total viewers. It will be interesting to see if Sunday’s final, in which the U.S. will face either Sweden or the Netherlands, will be able to match or even top that figure.
This tournament has been setting ratings records not only in the U.S., but also around the world. For instance in the U.K., the semifinal in Lyon garnered 11.7 million viewers and a 50.8% share of viewing, meaning it achieved the highest peak audience of 2019.