England-Argentina World Cup Clash Makes Ratings History

ReutersFri, July 17, 2026 at 6:02 AM UTC

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Fox Sports continued a record-breaking week in TV soccer viewership when Argentina’s narrow victory over England on Wednesday was the most-watched World Cup semifinal in English-language history, Variety reported.

Argentina’s 2-1 win averaged 15.063 million viewers on Fox, crushing the mark set just one day earlier when Spain shut out France 2-0 in Tuesday’s semifinal and averaged 11.462 million viewers.

Argentina and superstar Lionel Messi, facing off in Atlanta against England and its star striker Harry Kane, peaked with 22.177 million viewers from 4:45-5 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Fox averaged 6.531 million viewers for the 2022 World Cup semifinals.

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The France-Morocco semifinal in December 2022 in Qatar drew 6.595 million viewers on Fox, the record for English-language broadcasts of World Cup semifinals until this week.

Radio Times reported that England’s match Wednesday was the most-watched live TV broadcast in the United Kingdom in 2026. The broadcast peaked at 24 million viewers -- 85% of all TV viewing at the time -- and averaged 22.1 million on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

It was the most-watched match of the current World Cup in the United Kingdom -- topping England’s quarterfinal win over Norway on ITV1 (peak of 16.8 million per reported overnight figures). It was BBC’s biggest live audience since England lost the Euro 2020 final to Italy in 2021.

Defending World Cup champion Argentina play European champion Spain on Sunday in the final in East Rutherford, N.J. England and France meet on Saturday in the third-place game in Miami Gardens, Fla.

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