Women’s World Cup Championship Breaks TV Ratings Record (Updated)

Updated Monday at 1:47 p.m. PT: The Women’s World Cup Final versus Japan scored 25.4 million total viewers, officially making it the most-watched soccer match in U.S. history.

The previous top mark of 18.2 million total viewers came from the men’s group stage game versus Portugal last year. The largest number for a women’s game previously was 18 million, the total from the 1999 championship.

Last night, the audience peaked with 31 million viewers between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. ET.

Previously, metered market results:
The U.S. Women’s National Team are World Cup champions once again, and their 5-2 victory over Japan has set a ratings record in the process.

The Fox game scored a 15.2 household rating/27 share in the 56 metered markets measured by Nielsen, a very preliminary metric. That is the best-ever rating for a soccer game in the U.S. on a single network. The previous high-water mark came from 1999’s Women’s World Cup final versus China, which earned a 13.3 rating.

Sunday night’s rating was up 77 percent over the 8.6 recorded by cable channel ESPN for the USA vs. Japan Women’s World Cup final in 2011. Last night’s metered market audience peaked at 18.3/31 from 8:45-9:00 p.m. ET, which included Team USA’s winning celebration.

The match began at 7 p.m. ET.

Here are the Top 5 local markets for the championship contest:
1) Kansas City (20.6/35)
2) St. Louis (20.5/33)
3) San Diego (19.5/41)
4) Denver (19.4/36)
5) Austin (19.1/37)

Fast national numbers are expected later on Monday.