FOX has revealed the TV ratings for the USWNT’s final Women’s World Cup game.
The U.S. was chasing a three-peat in this year’s tournament but crashed out to Sweden in the Round of 16 via a penalty shootout on Sunday morning.
According to FOX, 2.52 million viewers tuned in to watch, with viewership peaking at over 4 million between 7:30 AM and 7:45 AM. This marks a drop of 21 percent from the 3.2 million FS1 recorded for the RO16 matchup against Spain in 2019.
While FOX will be disappointed, there is a good explanation for this. The game kicked off at 5:00 AM ET – and, while many people got up early on the East Coast or in the middle of the night on the West Coast, there were plenty who prioritized their sleep. Fortunately too as they would have been quite upset to watch the American side get booted in such fashion.
The USWNT is to blame for the unreasonably early timing given they would have played in prime-time slots had they won their group. Instead, they barely scraped through to the next round.
FOX will now have to continue its airing of the competition without its biggest draw. And it will be a very long time before the team gets an opportunity to three-peat again.
