The 2026 FIFA World Cup is underway, and it didn’t take the world-renowned tournament long to smash records in North America. NFL fans are often left dumbfounded by the number of viewers their sport attracts;

Even with Nielsen implementing their Big Data + Panel measurement system, which has skewed favorably given streaming, the numbers were still incredible. The match was up a whopping +97% compared to the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup non-USMNT group stage telecast on FOX, which averaged 3.21 million viewers.

Considering the Super Bowl is just one day and that the World Cup spans longer than a month, the viewership data favors the latter. In the 2026 tournament, the viewership is predicted to surpass 5 billion people across the world, making that an average of 128.2 million per day across 39 days.

Viewership for previous World Cup finals was only a little higher than for a strong Monday Night Football game, but with matches on U.S. soil, media executives are hopeful this will be the year soccer breaks through.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is off to a record-breaking start. The tournament began Thursday with the opening match between Mexico and South Africa, with the former’s 2-0 victory clutching 6.3 million viewers across Fox,

Viewers were moved to tears as Tom Cruise appeared alongside David Beckham during the World Cup opening ceremony national anthem

Friday's World Cup action features the U.S. and Canada competing in their first games. Here's how to live stream both games for free.

If the viewership for the opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup is any indication, Fox and Telemundo are about to break some serious records for this year’s tournament. The tournament kicked off Thursday with the opening match,