Mexico vs South Africa match breaks record for most-watched WC opening game

The FIFA World Cup is off to a strong ratings start, with over 20 million viewers tuning in for Thursday's Mexico-South Africa matchup, report agencies.

The game scored 13.4 million viewers across Telemundo, Peacock and Telemundo Deportes' digital platforms for Spanish-language coverage as well as 7.19 million viewers across Fox, Fox One and Tubi for English-language coverage, according to live-plus-same-day Nielsen figures.

Mexico's victory over South Africa broke records across platforms, with the Spanish-language coverage drawing the most-watched FIFA World Cup opening game in history, regardless of language, as well as the most-watched men's match in Spanish-language television history. Viewership was up 229 per cent from the 2022 World Cup kickoff. The English-language coverage also set records, marking the most-watched FIFA men's World Cup opening match in US English-language history, as well as the most-watched FIFA men's World Cup match in English-language US history when excluding U.S. men's national team group-stage games. Viewership for the match was up 150 per cent from the 2022 World Cup opening match on Fox Sports 1. The Mexico-South Africa match also marked the most-streamed English-language opening match in FIFA World Cup history.