The US women's national team is off to a winning start in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup – both on the field, and in the TV ratings.
The USWNT's tournament-opening 3-1 win over Australia averaged 3.311 million viewers on Fox Sports 1, reported SportsTVRatings.com, just more than triple the 1.074 million viewers that watched the opening game of the 2011 tournament against North Korea. The game was eclipsed among cable sports TV viewers only by Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final between the Chicago Fire and Tampa Bay Lightning, which averagedn 3.874 million viewers.
According to Fox Sports, the match was the most watched Women's World Cup group stage contest ever and drew the largest audience of any soccer match in Fox Sports 1's history.
That massive jump can partially be attributed to the fact that the USA's opener in Winnipeg was a 7:30 pm ET kickoff, as opposed to an 11:45 am ET kickoff when the tournament was held in Germany four years earlier.
Washington, D.C. and Baltimore led the way among the top markets for the game, while three California cities were also among the top 10:
The US will next take on No. 5-ranked Sweden, again in Winnipeg, on Friday (8 pm ET, FOX) before concluding group-stage play against Nigeria on Tuesday, June 16 (8 pm ET, FOX).
