Mexico lost to Sweden 3-0 Wednesday (June 27) in its finale of the group stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia. Still, Mexico advanced to the knockout phase -- and helped deliver the best weekday audience ever for NBCUniversal-owned Telemundo.
The Spanish-language broadcaster posted an average 4.4 million viewers on TV during the two-hour match window and 4 million for overall coverage from 9:30 a.m. to noon ET, it said, citing Nielsen. Adding in web and app views, the match audience rose to 5.2 million viewers, which was the third-best game performance of the tournament on Telemundo Deportes, it said. (Mexico won its first two matches, on weekend days, against defending champion Germany and against South Korea.)
Overall, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the average audience of 2.6 million made for Telemundo's most-watched weekday ever, the broadcaster said.
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Telemundo also said the 6.9 million livestreams of the Mexico-Sweden match was the most-watched livestream event in Spanish-language history. El Trinext faces Brazil on Monday, July 2, at 10 a.m. ET in what shapes up to be a massive TV event for U.S. Hispanics.
Fox Sports, meanwhile, said Wednesday was the most-watched World Cup matchday 14 since 2006, averaging 1.523 million viewers on Fox and FS1. Fox Sports also enjoyed its best day ever in authenticated streaming with 140 million minutes streamed and 1.8 million unique streamers across all sports, it said.
Brazil's 2-0 win over Serbia drew the day's biggest audience, with a combined linear and digital audience of 2.61 million viewers on Fox and Fox streaming sources. On TV alone, the match drew an average audience of 2.32 million, Fox said.
The Mexico-Sweden match delivered a combined linear and digital audience of 2.404 million viewers on Fox and digital outlets, per Fox Sports, or about half the size of the reported Telemundo Deportes audience.
Fox said Wednesday was the best day yet of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in terms of streaming, with 135 minutes across the four live matches, shoulder programming and video-on-demand replays.
Fox and Telemundo have U.S. rights to World Cup tournaments through 2026, when the games will be played in the USA, Mexico and Canada.
Pictured, top: Hector Moreno of Mexico fouls Marcus Berg of Sweden inside the box to concede a penalty during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia group F match between Mexico and Sweden at Ekaterinburg Arena on June 27, 2018 in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
