The long-shot World Cup aspirations of the U.S. Men’s National Team ended Saturday at the hands of The Netherlands in a 3-1 round of 16 loss. After failing to qualify for the 2018 tournament, the American return to the big event revitalized viewership within the United States. Saturday’s U.S. vs. The Netherlands match was Fox’s second most streamed match of the 2022 World Cup slate to that point, and viewership was up over 126% from 2018’s Round of 16 average.
How will the elimination of the U.S. team affect viewership and interest as the tournament continues? New CivicScience data following Saturday’s U.S. match show impacts of the loss are not overly significant when compared to World Cup interest data collected prior to the match. The number of U.S. adults who say they’re occasionally watching matches declined by 4 percentage points. There was however an 8 percentage-point increase of people who are not following World Cup action at all.
It’s a similar story for Americans who are regularly watching sports on TV. The U.S. defeat brought about a small decline of five percentage points among those who were actually watching matches at least occasionally. There was however a noticeable decline in people who are not watching World Cup matches but following the results from From 28% to 21%.
Interestingly, interest in World Cup matches among Major League Soccer fans actually increased following the U.S. elimination. MLS fans watching every match rose from 22% before Saturday to 29% afterward. Occasional watchers presented the largest increase post-match, jumping from 36% to 48%. It’s not only the U.S. team that’s made an early exit, however, as 35 of the MLS’ 36 players on World Cup rosters have also been eliminated. Yet interest from the league’s fans persists.
Additional insights from the data:
CivicScience CEO John Dick took a deep dive into CivicSceince’s powerful InsightStore for predictive attributes of a World Cup fan; among the top 50: business travelers, organ donors, Arby’s eaters.
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