The US men’s national team (USMNT) achieved a remarkable feat with their dramatic victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the World Cup on Wednesday, drawing a historic television audience. Preliminary reports from Fox Sports and Telemundo revealed that the match attracted an average of 24.429 million viewers on Fox, marking it as the most-watched English-language soccer broadcast in US history.

• The Fox telecast peaked at 31.883 million viewers.
• Telemundo reported 9.1 million viewers during the total game window.

Though Nielsen will release the full audience number on Monday, the combined viewership exceeding 33 million positions this game among the most-watched US television events of the year. Notably, only 12 telecasts surpassed the 33-million mark in the previous year, including key NFL playoff games and the Super Bowl.

To provide context, the recent NBA Finals averaged 20.5 million viewers, while the final game of last year’s World Series had 27.3 million viewers.

Historically, such numbers would have been unimaginable for US soccer. For comparison, the 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and France attracted 25.8 million viewers, and the USMNT's most-watched game at that tournament reached 19.9 million viewers.

This World Cup has consistently generated record US television audiences, aided by its North American location and star power, with the USMNT’s opener against Paraguay averaging 18.039 million viewers.

Looking ahead, the USMNT’s upcoming match against Belgium next Monday night in Seattle is poised to challenge for yet another record-breaking audience.