The 2026 World Cup opens by smashing TV audience records across North America
More than 54 million viewers watched the three hosts' openers, with USA-Paraguay becoming the most-watched World Cup match in US television history.
The FIFA World Cup 2026 has kicked off by breaking television audience records in all three host countries. According to FIFA, the opening matches of the United States, Mexico and Canada drew a combined total of more than 54 million viewers, a figure that confirms the huge pull of the first World Cup contested by 48 teams and spread across North America.
The clash between the United States and Paraguay was the standout: it drew a combined audience of 27.5 million viewers across FOX and Telemundo, making it the most-watched World Cup match ever broadcast in the country. The co-hosts thus topped a set of historic numbers for football in the United States.
In Mexico, the hosts' win over South Africa drew an average of 23.4 million viewers and reached a 72.1% audience share, an overwhelming grip on Mexican prime time. In Canada, the opener against Bosnia and Herzegovina averaged 3.1 million viewers across the English- and French-language broadcasts.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino hailed the "exceptional" atmosphere across the venues in the three countries and stressed football's power to bring the world together, at a tournament the governing body presents as the biggest in history by number of teams, venues and fans.
Source: official FIFA media release (inside.fifa.com).