USA-Nigeria draws 3rd-largest Women's World Cup audience
NEW YORK -- The TV audience for the U.S. team at the Women's World Cup keeps growing.
The Americans' 1-0 win over Nigeria in their final group stage game to clinch first place Tuesday night averaged 5 million viewers on Fox. The network said Wednesday that was the third-largest audience ever for a Women's World Cup match, behind only the 1999 and 2011 finals.
Last week's opener against Australia had drawn 3.3 million viewers on Fox Sports 1, and Friday's scoreless draw with Sweden averaged 4.5 million.
It was Fox's best Tuesday prime-time audience since Game 6 of the World Series last fall.
The viewership was nearly four times the 1.3 million for the third U.S. group stage match in 2011, which was on a weekday afternoon in the Eastern time zone with the tournament in Germany.
The audience peaked at 6.3 million from 9:30-9:45 p.m. EDT while the match was going up against the NBA Finals. The basketball game, which started an hour later than the soccer, averaged 23.3 million viewers as the Golden State Warriors clinched the NBA title.
