Fox Sports got an early Christmas present in the form of record viewership of the World Cup semifinals, which were the most-watched men’s World Cup semifinals on English-language television.

Tuesday’s match, when Argentina shut out Croatia 3-0, drew an audience of 6.46 million across the Fox broadcast and digital platforms, a 43 percent increase from 2018’s France vs. Belgium semifinal matchup.

France’s 2-0 win over Morocco on Wednesday did even better, drawing 6.59 million total viewers, up 17 percent from the 2018 equivalent semifinal telecast of the England vs. Croatia match.

Fox also bested the viewership of the 2014 semifinals, when the World Cup was televised on ESPN. The average viewership of this year’s semifinals was up 22 percent from 2014, despite the location in Brazil that year providing a much more beneficial time zone for U.S. viewing.

Overall in World Cup play, Fox Sports has averaged 3.3 million viewers over 62 matches. This is a 25 percent increase from the average through the 2018 semifinals, though it’s down 13 percent compared to the 3.81 million at the same point in 2014 across the viewing platforms of ABC, ESPN and ESPN2.

–Field Level Media