The World Cup proved sports are still king for linear, remaining one of the best ways for advertisers to reach an audience. Viewership for some of the games, even those without Team USA, became some of the highest viewed sports programming of the year, beating out the NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, and the World Series. The last Team USA match drew more viewers than this past year's NFL Divisional Round games, and the World Cup Final was the second most-viewed sporting event of the year, trailing only the Super Bowl. Advertisers on both the commercial and political fronts took full advantage of this unique mid-summer opportunity to connect with audiences.
Viewership started strong. In Group Stage Round 2, USA vs. Australia drew an average audience of 16.3M on FOX's English broadcast and 6.1M on Telemundo/Peacock's Spanish broadcast.
Beyond the Group Stage, Team USA's games became some of the most-watched non-football sports programming in the country this year. USA vs. Bosnia & Herzegovina pulled a combined 35.9M, 25.7M on the English broadcast, 10.2M on the Spanish broadcast. Then, in the Round of 16, Team USA's elimination by Belgium drew a combined 47.9M, 34.2M on the English broadcast, 13.7M on the Spanish broadcast — a larger audience than this past year's NFL Divisional Round games.
Audiences remained tuned in beyond Team USA's elimination. In the Round of 16, the Mexico-England game drew an average audience of 44M, with Telemundo's broadcast making up more than half of that total. Then the final between Spain and Argentina became the most watched non-Super Bowl sports program in recent history, seeing a total average audience of 49.9M, 31M.0 on FOX's English broadcast and 18.9M on Telemundo/Peacock's Spanish broadcast of the game. Total audience peaked at around 61.2M.
There is a split in how English and Spanish broadcast audiences are consuming the games. Linear holds a 47-51% share across all English broadcasts of Team USA games, while Peacock commands a majority share of the Spanish broadcasts.
FOX and Telemundo Win Big in Key Markets
The World Cup delivered for FOX, Telemundo, and advertisers alike. Both networks dominated impression share in key markets over the course of the tournament, with FOX leading in San Francisco, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Seattle, among others.
In markets with a large Hispanic population, Telemundo impressions surged, leading. in total impressions in markets like Houston and Los Angeles. The network also saw a large gain in markets without a large Hispanic population. For instance, impressions in Seattle jumped 4725% during the World Cup window compared to the previous month.
Advertisers Capitalize on Hydration Breaks
We tracked over 5K unique commercial advertisers airing spots across the games, combining for a total of 198K airings. Advertisers took full advantage of hydration breaks, which gave brands two extra ad break opportunities per game to reach their audience. FOX's English broadcast aired around a thousand more ads than Telemundo's Spanish broadcast, largely because FOX ran ads during every hydration break, while Telemundo stayed with match coverage through some of the breaks instead of cutting to commercial.
The top categories during the games were:
A stark contrast to the top categories across all programming during the same World Cup window:
One of the biggest jumps was Alcohol, which made up just 0.6% of all airings across all programming during the window, compared to 6% of airings during World Cup games specifically.
The most advertised alcohol brands included Michelob Ultra, Modelo, Casamigos Tequila, Coors, and Bud Light. Liquor brands in particular took full advantage of the World Cup: advertisers like Casamigos, Don Julio, Johnnie Walker, Centenario, Ketel One, Crown Royal, and Jim Beam, among others, saw World Cup game ad airings account for 20% of all their airings across all non-World Cup programming from 6/11-7/19
Breaking out the analysis between the English and Spanish broadcasts, there isn't a major difference in top categories. On the English broadcast, the top advertised categories were:
On the Spanish broadcast, the top categories were:
Top advertisers by broadcast airings during the games were Modelo, Bank of America, Home Depot, Nike, and Michelob Ultra, each of which ran World Cup-specific creative rather than their standard rotation.
Advertisers prioritized other broadcasts of the games or specific phases of the tournament. Here's a breakdown:
Spanish broadcasts: Modelo, Xfinity, AT&T, Home Depot, Verizon
Group stage games: Home Depot, Michelob Ultra, AT&T, New Balance, Bank of America
USA games: Home Depot, Adidas, New Balance, Bank of America, Lay's
The final: Kalshi, McDonald's, Adidas, Michelob Ultra, Bank of America
The World Cup also gave film studios a unique mid-summer opportunity to remind audiences of their upcoming blockbusters. We tracked ads from Minions & Monsters, Moana, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Supergirl, The Odyssey, and Toy Story 5, among others.
Betting Brands Bet Big on the World Cup
Sports betting sites and apps made a big play during the tournament. We tracked over 3.5K airings from betting brands such as DraftKings, Kalshi, Hard Rock Bet, FanDuel, and Bet365, among others. These brands leaned on star power, like Kalshi's ad starring Timothée Chalamet, or a direct connection to the tournament, like FanDuel's ad showing Team USA fans celebrating a goal. Some brands targeted Hispanic audiences specifically: during a Telemundo broadcast, DraftKings aired a Spanish-language spot highlighting its availability in Spanish and in all 50 states. All five of the brands above ran ads during the Final.
Political Advertisers Tackle the World Cup
Happening every other political cycle, the World Cup gives political advertisers a great opportunity to reach local audiences during high-viewership broadcasts. In total, we tracked over 2K broadcast airings targeting the World Cup games across 172 different advertisers. By airings, it’s nearly a 50:50 split between candidates and outside groups. When looking just as airings by candidates, Republican advertisers aired nearly double the number of airings Democrats did.
Advertisers facing contested late-summer primaries took the most advantage of the tournament. Of the 110 elections and political issues targeted with ads during World Cup programming, 71 were primaries. By airings, the most targeted primaries were all gubernatorial contests, Nevada, Tennessee and Michigan, and then the primary for Michigan Senate. In each of these races, at least two candidates booked ads throughout the games.
Political advertisers also used the World Cup to get ahead of general election messaging, particularly in competitive Senate races in Maine, North Carolina, and Texas. Among the 20 general elections we tracked World Cup airings for, Democratic advertisers aired more ads during the games than their Republican counterparts in 11 of the contests.
Breaking out coverage between FOX's English broadcast and Telemundo's Spanish-language broadcast, the candidates who advertised most on FOX stations were Perry Johnson (R, Michigan gubernatorial primary), John Rose (R, Tennessee gubernatorial primary), and Rob Sand (D, Iowa gubernatorial general). On Telemundo, the candidates with the most airings were Gabe Evans (R, Colorado CD-08 general), Kris Mayes (D, Arizona Attorney General general), and James Talarico (D, Texas Senate general).
The markets with the most political airings during Telemundo's coverage were Denver, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. For FOX's English broadcast, the top markets were Jackson (TN), Lansing, and Minneapolis.
The World Cup showed that live sports still command audiences no other programming can match. In our Local CTV report, we framed the World Cup as an H2 opportunity advertisers had to jump on — and it was just the start. The remainder of the year brings a stacked lineup of opportunities: the political midterms, the World Series, NFL kickoff, and, capping it all off, the holiday ad season.