Goooool! Telemundo Scores Big With World Cup Viewers, 9 Million Make Argentina-Mexico Most Watched Match

Telemundo Deportes’ first week of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Spanish-language coverage has delivered record viewership across Telemundo’s broadcast network and Peacock and Telemundo’s streaming platforms since its kick off Sunday, November 20.

Saturday’s Argentina vs Mexico, in which star player Lionel Messi scored the first goal, followed by another by Enzo Fernández that led the Argentinian national team to a 2-0 victory, powered Telemundo’s audience reach. It was the most-watched World Cup Group Stage match in Spanish-language history, averaging a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 8.9 million viewers.

It was also the most-streamed FIFA World Cup match in U.S. media history, regardless of language, making it the first World Cup game to top two million viewers with an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 2.08 million viewers, beating the previous record set by Tuesday’s Mexico vs Poland game (1.35 million).

The second most-watched game of the tournament’s first week was Brazil vs Serbia (5.7 million), followed by Portugal vs Ghana (4.3 million). Both matches were the first ever played on Thanksgiving, due to the World Cup’s move to the fall (also a first in its history) to offset Qatar’s extreme summer heat.

Mexico’s first match against Poland was the third most popular, averaging 4.6 million viewers. The U.S. team also held its own among Telemundo’s Spanish-language audience. Friday night’s England vs USA match averaged a TAD of 4.6 million viewers, making it the second-most watched World Cup Group Stage match featuring a U.S. team in Spanish-language history.

Sunday’s opening match, in which host-nation Qatar lost to Ecuador 0-2, averaged a TAD of 4.1 million viewers.

The World Cup lifted Telemundo’s ranking, making it the No. 1 Spanish-language network in Total Day (6A-2A) during the first three days of tournament.

Streaming numbers show how much the audience has changed, turning to digital platforms and on-demand viewing, especially for a World Cup that has a significant time difference with the U.S.’s west coast. Overall, 26% of Telemundo’s total World Cup viewership has been via streaming – a figure the network calls “unprecedented.”

Telemundo is averaging a TAD of 2.57 million viewers through the first 24 matches across all platforms – up 24% compared to 2018’s World Cup Russia (2.07 million) – with streaming responsible for 673,000 of those viewers on Peacock and Telemundo streaming platforms, which is up 209% vs. 2018 (218,000).

Sources provided by Telemundo: iSpot.tv, World Cup on Telemundo, FOX/FS1 (11/20-26/22); Marketcast TVBE, A18-49 for World Cup (11/20-23/22), World Cup matches on Telemundo vs. PY SLTV Sports norm, excl. NBCU (4Q’21-3Q22); EDO: 2022 World Cup, Games & Shoulder Programming, All Dayparts (11/20-24/22), SLTV World Cup on Telemundo vs. Prior year competitive live sports on SLTV; MindProber, Galvanic skin response testing, US vs. Wales 11/21 measurement of match airing on Telemundo, Peacock and FOX