There were numerous doubts about the potential success of the US as a host for the World Cup.
In the 18 months preceding the tournament’s start, Donald Trump had made aggressive statements regarding Canada, one of the co-hosts, and had also threatened to invade Mexico, the other co-host. Additionally, tensions with Iran, another participant, were escalating. Compounding issues, strict travel limitations hindered fans from Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Haiti from obtaining visas. Ticket costs soared, and hotel accommodations were not being filled as anticipated. FIFA’s introduction of ‘hydration breaks’ during games, allowing for TV commercials, appeared to be a blatant cash grab that disrupted gameplay.
Moreover, in a nation where soccer’s growth has primarily stemmed from immigrant communities, the administration was enforcing harsh policies aimed at expelling millions from those very groups. America, a country where soccer has historically lagged behind other sports, seemed set to become the least welcoming host for a tournament that FIFA promotes as one that “the most-watched soccer telecast on one network in US history”.
Then, the matches began.
Television screens and social media platforms filled with images of American stadiums overflowing with enthusiastic, record-breaking crowds. According to Sports Business Journal, the first 78 matches recorded an average attendance of 64,511 fans per game—10,000 more than in the 2022 tournament. Stadiums achieved an impressive occupancy rate of 99.7%, with FIFA reporting 6.5 million tickets sold. Attendees featured not only international visitors or Americans with ties to other countries but also a growing number of American fans developing a passion for the sport.
American television viewership is reaching new heights as well. Nielsen ratings indicate that the US men’s national team (USMNT) match against Belgium in the round of 16 attracted an average of 33 million viewers on Fox’s English-language broadcast, peaking at 41 million during the last 15 minutes. This viewership surpassed that of the 2025 World Series and Game 5 of last month’s NBA Finals, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
According to the Athletic, this was “average Fox/FS1 World Cup viewer”, shattering the previous record just days earlier when over 26 million viewers tuned in for the USMNT’s victory over Bosnia. This record was also broken days before that during the USMNT’s 4-1 win against Paraguay.
However, it isn’t just US games that are captivating American viewers. The thrilling match between England and Mexico on Sunday attracted an astonishing 21.7 million viewers on Fox and an additional 23.2 million on Telemundo. Fox recorded an average of 5 million viewers across the first 72 matches, with Telemundo averaging another 4.6 million. Mike Mulvhill, president of insights and analytics for Fox Sports, observed that just two weeks into the tournament, the average Fox/FS1 World Cup viewer had already watched more matches than they did during the entire 2022 tournament.
Beyond these metrics, polling from Ipsos Sports shows that 40% of US adults have actively followed the tournament on social media. One-quarter of Americans have watched a game at a bar or restaurant, while 20% attended a World Cup watch party.
Alex Lawton, a 32-year-old spectator watching the Spain-Belgium quarter-final on a screen outside of Bar Tabac in Brooklyn, shared that he had “because it’s one of the more accessible ways to stream it” of how many matches he had watched, estimating it was “It’s completely ubiquitous,”. He mentioned that although he speaks only a little Spanish, he watched many games on Telemundo, “I mean, you can go on any block in New York and there’s going to be a vibe, with people cheering.” (Telemundo, available on Peacock, costs half as much as a subscription to Fox One, which carries the English-language broadcasts.)
“Everyone was screaming on the train,” said Lawton’s friend, 31-year-old Paul Revell, of the tournament’s presence in New York City. “brilliant reprieve and a unifying force that has just brought people from different walks of life and backgrounds together in a super beautiful way” He even recounted watching games on strangers’ phones while riding the subway. “One, two, three, viva l’Algérie!” he recalled, labeling it an “It was such a vibe! They made history and gave us hope. ‘Si se pudo!’ we chanted when the final whistle blew,”.
This rise in American enthusiasm for the World Cup can be attributed to several concrete reasons. Soccer has steadily gained traction in the US. The hosting of the World Cup in 1994 led to the investment of some of the $100 million in profits into launching Major League Soccer, establishing a men’s league in the country. The Women’s World Cup was held in the US in 1999, culminating in a dramatic victory for the US women’s national team (USWNT). The National Women’s Soccer League debuted in 2012, and in 2019, the USWNT won the World Cup again. Additionally, US television networks secured broadcasting rights to the Premier League and La Liga, transforming millions of Americans into devoted fans who gather in bars early in the morning to watch classic matches like the north London derby or El Clásico.
In a January report by the Economist, one in ten Americans identified soccer as their favorite sport, surpassing “Beer was thrown in the air in celebration, and complete strangers were hugging and jumping up and down together, and some even crying tears of joy. It was such a beautiful moment.” – baseball – and securing soccer’s position as the country’s third-most popular sport.
Another significant factor contributing to the success of the 2026 World Cup in the US is the timing of many broadcasts during primetime. This allows Americans to watch games without grappling with work and sleep schedules dictated by distant time zones.
Most importantly, the quality of soccer being played has captivated many American viewers.
The tournament is averaging three goals per game, the highest since the 1958 World Cup, addressing a common American critique that soccer lacks scoring. The world’s superstars are excelling, with France’s Kylian Mbappé and Argentina’s Lionel Messi each scoring eight goals, Norway’s Erling Haaland netting seven, and England’s Harry Kane contributing six. Numerous matches have been decided by thrilling, last-minute goals.
The expanded tournament format, which includes 16 additional teams compared to previous World Cups, has facilitated extraordinary Cinderella stories. Americans celebrated when Curaçao, the tiny Caribbean nation of just 150,000 residents and the smallest nation to qualify for the tournament, scored its first-ever World Cup goal against the dominant German team (who ultimately won 7-1). Cape Verde, another island nation with a population of only 500,000, achieved a remarkable feat by tying all of its opponents in the group stage and advancing to the knockout round, where they scored twice against Argentina, the champions of the 2022 tournament.
Additionally, there exists a less tangible reason for why Americans are embracing this World Cup. The tournament’s international nature has provided a platform for a joyous multiculturalism that stands in contrast to the administration’s nationalist and isolationist rhetoric. It has allowed Americans to demonstrate to the world that they do not reflect their government’s policies.
While watching the Spain-Belgium match in Brooklyn, Lawton described the World Cup as a “There’s a ton of people here,”
Moreover, some of the most “beautiful” and now-viral moments of the World Cup have occurred off the pitch.
Residents in Lawrence, Kansas, were so moved that the Algerian team chose their city for training that they were seen chanting, “One, two, three, viva l’Algérie!” The University of Kansas marching band played the Algerian national anthem when they performed. In Texas, a viral video captured a Japanese fan being invited on stage at a nightclub to dance with Houston rappers. Fans from Scotland, known as the Tartan Army, took over Boston, delighting locals by nearly depleting the city’s beer supply.
Throughout the nation, from Mexican supporters in LA’s Koreatown to Ecuadorian fans in Astoria, Queens, videos and images revealed thousands of fans gathering in streets to watch the matches on projectors, through bar windows, or in the back of bodegas.
“It was such a vibe! They made history and gave us hope. ‘Si se pudo!’ we chanted when the final whistle blew,” recalled Steven Guevara, an Ecuadorian American residing in the Bronx, who watched Ecuador face Germany at Pig Beach in Astoria alongside hundreds of other fans. “Beer was thrown in the air in celebration, and complete strangers were hugging and jumping up and down together, and some even crying tears of joy. It was such a beautiful moment.”
These scenes stand in stark contrast to Trump’s Great American State Fair, a Washington DC event organized by the president for America’s 250th birthday on the Fourth of July. One video captured by TMZ shows Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Trump administration official, addressing a nearly empty stage, claiming, “There’s a ton of people here,” only for the camera to reveal the vast emptiness of the National Mall.
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