Fox Sports capped a record-breaking week for World Cup television audiences as Argentina's dramatic 2-1 victory over England on Wednesday became the most-watched FIFA World Cup semifinal in English-language history, according to Variety.
The semifinal averaged 15.063 million viewers on Fox, surpassing the record set just a day earlier when Spain's 2-0 victory over France drew an average audience of 11.462 million viewers.
The clash between Lionel Messi's Argentina and Harry Kane's England peaked at 22.177 million viewers between 4:45 p.m. and 5 p.m. ET as the match built to its dramatic conclusion.
Fox averaged 6.531 million viewers for the 2022 World Cup semifinals.
The France-Morocco semifinal in December 2022 in Qatar drew 6.595 million viewers on Fox, setting the previous English-language record for a World Cup semifinal broadcast until it was broken this week.
Radio Times reported that England's match on Wednesday was the most-watched live television broadcast in the United Kingdom in 2026.
The broadcast peaked at 24 million viewers, accounting for 85% of all television viewing at the time, and averaged 22.1 million viewers across BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
It was the most-watched match of the current World Cup in the United Kingdom, surpassing England's quarterfinal victory over Norway on ITV1, which peaked at 16.8 million viewers, according to overnight figures.
It was also the BBC's biggest live audience since England lost the Euro 2020 final to Italy in 2021.
Defending World Cup champion Argentina will play European champion Spain in the final on Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey. England and France will meet in the third-place playoff on Saturday in Miami Gardens, Florida.
