Highlighting the extraordinary devotion of Hispanic soccer fans in this country, SundayÆs match-up between Mexico and Iran, which resulted in a Mexican victory, was viewed by an impressive 5.4 million average audience of persons 2 and older, making it the most-watched sporting event in Spanish-language television history, beating even previous World Cup final matches.
With just three days and eight games into the month-long, 64 game tournament, the Univision Television NetworkÆs exclusive Spanish-language coverage of the FIFA World Cup Germany 2006TM is breaking audience records in all key demographics and setting the pace to become the most-watched World Cup in U.S. history.
According to NielsenÆs NTI Fast National Ratings, the first eight games have averaged 2.6 million Persons 2+ which is 1.7 million more than the average of the first eight games of the 2002 World Cup tournament in Korea/Japan, or nearly three times the audience. Additionally, Adults 18-49 averaged 1.7 million viewers per game, also nearly tripling the audience. Even more dramatic growth was seen among Teens 12-17 and Kids 2-11 with nearly five times and more than thre times the audience in these demographics respectively.