England’s epic encounter against Mexico in the round of 16 at the World Cup 2026 drew more of an audience in the United States then the country’s own last-16 tie against Belgium.
The US’s game was aired on Monday and saw Belgium sweep past Mauricio Pochettino’s men 4-1 with the build-up to the clash being dominated by Donald Trump’s intervention with Fifa over rescinding a red card ban for striker Folarin Balogun.
That game was watched by 42m people across Fox, Telemundo, and Peacock according to NBC Sports with the viewership for England victory at the Azteca peaking at close to 45m viewers on Sunday evening.
The total figures for the Three Lions’ game come from 23.1m watching on Telemundo and Peacock, and 21.742m watching on Fox for a total of 44.842m.
Though the viewing numbers are great a caveat must be made over the two featured matches. England are one of the most popular nations to follow, outside of their own team, for US nationals and their encounter with Mexico is being described as a World Cup classic, such was the incredible nature of their victory.
And for the US’s last-16 tie, belief in the team had grown after a strong group stage and round of 32 victory over DR Congo. Additionally to that, Trump’s phone call to Fifa president Gianni Infantino dominated the pre-match news cycle raising awareness for the game.
Regardless, the numbers are a very strong indicator of the growing popularity of football in the United States with both matches coming close to the average viewing numbers of NFL’s AFC and NFC Championship games. Those games drew around 47m views back in January.
One of Fifa’s main objectives with the 2026 World Cup was to grow the game in America and, with seven knockout matches still to play, the signs are overwhelmingly positive for football’s governing body.
Yet, it remains to be seen if these matches can maintain the hype, and views, of a North American audience now that all three of the World Cup co-hosts, the US, Mexico and Canada, have been eliminated from the tournament.
Even if viewership were to drop for the rest of the tournament, the good news for Fifa is that talks are underway over television rights for the 2030 edition of the tournament with US broadcasters expected to pay around $2bn to air the World Cup in comparison to the TV deal for this year’s edition which sits at around $485m.
