As the TV ratings for the World Cup surge, it\u2019s fair to ask whether the NFL is getting a little nervous about soccer\u2019s sudden success in the U.S.<\/p>\n
At a time when the league would like to infiltrate other countries where soccer is the undisputed king, there\u2019s cause for at least a smidge of concern regarding American football\u2019s unquestioned dominance over all other sports televised in the United States.<\/p>\n
The 2026 World Cup is delivering. The games are exciting. The penalty-kick shootout provides a level of sustained (and mounting) tension that no other sport can match<\/a>.<\/p>\n Still, soccer has a very long way to go. Wednesday night\u2019s record audience for the U.S. win over Bosnia and Herzegovina (33.5 million<\/a> for the English and Spanish broadcasts) falls far short of the biggest audiences the NFL has delivered.<\/p>\n Still, ESPN \u2014 which is now partially owned by the NFL \u2014 felt compelled to point that out in its article about the new high-water mark for soccer on domestic TV. \u201cBy comparison, the most-watched Super Bowl of all time came in 2025, when an average of 127.7 million viewers<\/a> watched the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs across Fox, Fox Deportes, Telemundo and Tubi,\u201d ESPN wrote in an item without a byline.<\/p>\n The ESPN article mentions only the English-language audience on Fox (24.4 million) not the Spanish-language audience on Telemundo (9.1 million). In contrast, the Telemundo audience was included in ESPN\u2019s Super Bowl LIX figure.<\/p>\n Is it really apples to apples? The 33.5 million figure came five levels below the World Cup\u2019s equivalent of the Super Bowl. The NFL\u2019s 2026 wild-card round, three levels below the Super Bowl, averaged 32 million viewers<\/a>.<\/p>\n