The U.S. men’s national team’s 1-0 loss to Uruguay in the final round of the Copa America soccer tournament drew an average of 3.78 million viewers Monday on Fox Sports 1. The total marked the most-watched non-World Cup soccer game in network history, FS1 said.
The loss in the final game of group play eliminated the USMNT from the quadrennial tournament, which the U.S. is hosting. The Americans were widely expected to advance to the knockout round of the tourney that features South American powers like Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, but a loss to regional rival Panama in the second game of group play meant the U.S. needed a result Tuesday.
Despite the U.S. playing well at times, Uruguay, another tournament favorite, kept calm in a physical game and made a 66th-minute goal stick despite U.S. pressure near the end, when FS1 said viewership peaked at 4.87M.
The disappointing result comes in the last major tournament before the U.S., Mexico and Canada host the 2026 World Cup.
The ratings have been a bright spot for Fox and FS1, which are concurrently broadcasting the Euro 2024 European championships; American soccer fans are getting a summer treat watching Euro matches during the day and Copa American in the evenings. The U.S.’s Copa-opening 2-0 win against Bolivia was watched by an average of 3.19 million, the biggest non-World Cup viewership ever on Fox, while Thursday’s 2-1 loss to Panama, in which the U.S. played a man down for most of the match, was the second most-watched on the network with 2.47 million sets of eyeballs.
Overall, Fox Sports says that its Copa America games have averaged 1.1 million viewers, up 411% compared with the 2021 tournament and 48% over the 2016 tournament to date.
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