US loss to Belgium sets another domestic TV ratings record

MIAMI: The United States men’s national team’s loss to Belgium in the World Cup round of 16 on Monday was a disappointment for fans, but it rewrote domestic viewership records once again.

The game drew 30 million viewers on Fox, according to Nielsen preliminary data released Tuesday. That far outpaced the Americans’ round of 32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina last Wednesday, which at 24.429 million was the most-watched English-language football broadcast in the US for all of five days.

The peak audience for Belgium’s 4-1 win over the US was 36.895 million viewers in the 9.15-9.30pm ET window.

The 30 million number beat out some high-profile sporting events in the US in the past 12 months, including the New York Knicks’ title-clinching Game 5 win over the San Antonio Spurs (24.5 million) and Game 7 of the 2025 World Series in which the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays (26 million). The CFP national title game between Indiana and Miami only barely beat out US-Belgium at 30.1 million.

And taken together with an audience of 12 million on Spanish-language Telemundo, the game averaged a whopping 42 million viewers.

It was the last US match fans will get to see in the tournament they are co-hosting. Malik Tillman scored on a free kick, but Charles De Ketelaere had a first-half brace for Belgium and they added on two more after halftime.