The 2022 World Cup final between Spain and Argentina drew an unprecedented 62.8 million viewers in the United States, marking the largest audience ever recorded for a soccer match on American television.
A historic viewership milestone
The broadcast split across two networks, with Fox delivering an English‑language feed that averaged 38.9 million viewers and Telemundo’s Spanish‑language feed pulling in 23.9 million, together underscoring the match’s broad appeal.
That figure eclipsed the previous high set earlier in the tournament, when 45.99 million people tuned in to watch Belgium defeat the United States, illustrating a steady climb in interest.
Even as the World Cup final set new benchmarks, it still fell short of the Super Bowl’s 125.6 million viewers and was modest compared with the 24.5 million who watched the final game of the 2022 NBA Finals, yet it comfortably outpaced those other events.
Halftime spectacle and geographic advantage
The surge in viewership was fueled in part by a high‑profile halftime show that featured Madonna, Justin Bieber, BTS and Shakira, while the tournament’s placement in North America — many matches held on U.S. soil and the final staged in New Jersey — made the games more accessible to American audiences.
The combination of star power, convenient timing and a familiar geographic setting helped convert casual viewers into a record‑breaking crowd, cementing the 2022 final as a watershed moment for soccer’s growth in the United States.