‘A brilliant reprieve, a unifying force’: America falls in love with the World Cup
There were plenty of reasons to believe the US hosting the World Cup would be a disaster.
In the year and a half leading up to the kick-off, Donald Trump had threatened to annex tournament co-host Canada, and to invade the other co-host, Mexico; he was at war with one of the tournament’s participants, Iran. Harsh travel restrictions were preventing fans from Senegal, Ivory Coast and Haiti from getting visas. Ticket prices were outrageous. Hotels weren’t filling up as promised. Fifa was introducing “hydration breaks” during games, allowing TV commercials in what appeared to be a shameless cash grab that threatened the flow of play.
Finally, in a country where the beautiful game has only ever flourished because of immigrants, the White House was overseeing brutal sweeps to forcibly expel millions from those very communities. America – where soccer has always trailed other sports in popularity – was poised to be the most unwelcoming host of a tournament that, Fifa boasts in its advertisements, “unites the world”.
Then the soccer started.
The world’s TV screens and social media feeds were filled with footage of American stadiums packed with rapturous, record-setting crowds. Through the first 78 matches, according to Sports Business Journal, an average of 64,511 fans were attending each game – 10,000 more than the 2022 tournament. Stadiums have averaged a 99.7% occupancy rate and Fifa says it has sold 6.5 million tickets. Those in attendance haven’t just been from overseas, or Americans with familial ties to other nations, but American fans in love, or falling in love, with the game.
American TV viewership is breaking records too. According to Nielsen ratings, the US men’s national team’s (USMNT) round-of-16 loss last week to Belgium drew an average of 33 million viewers to Fox’s English-language broadcast, peaking at 41 million viewers in the final 15 minutes of the match. Per the Wall Street Journal, that’s a higher number than the tally of those who watched the 2025 World Series and Game 5 of last month’s NBA finals.
It was, per the Athletic, “the most-watched soccer telecast on one network in US history”, breaking the record set days prior, when over 26 million people watched the USMNT beat Bosnia, again only breaking a record set days prior, during the USMNT’s 4-1 trouncing of Paraguay. [Continue reading…]