FIFA Women’s World Cup Final Sets U.S. Viewership Records

VANCOUVER/MIAMI: Sunday’s FIFA Women’s World Cup final, which saw the U.S. trounce Japan to win the title for a third time, set viewing records for both English- and Spanish-language broadcasts in the victors' home country.

According to Nielsen, the game became the most-watched soccer match in U.S. history, posting 12.9 household rating/share with 25.4 million viewers and peaking at 30.9 million. In total, 43.2 million viewers tuned in for all or part of the tournament’s last game, obliterating the previous mark of 18.2 million set by the U.S. and Portugal pairing during last year’s World Cup group stage match.

The game also delivered record-breaking numbers for U.S. Latino broadcaster Telemundo, becoming the most watched game of a FIFA Women’s World Cup in U.S. Spanish-language TV. The face-off delivered 1.27 million total viewers, up 97 percent versus the 2011 U.S. Spanish-language broadcast of the tournament’s final.

Reactions in social media were also high, as Twitter reported 9 billion impressions of tweets about the soccer championship from start to finish. The final U.S. game drew the most Twitter conversation of any match, with tweets per minute spiking at their highest point of the entire season as the victor was crowned.