USA-Algeria Becomes The Highest-Rated & Most-Watched Soccer Game in ESPN’s History

One can only imagine the numbers had USA-Algeria been played in primetime rather than the mid-morning hours on the East Coast. Had it been played at 8 p.m. Eastern, the numbers would likely have been much higher. However, to get 4.6 rating and almost 6.2 million viewers is rather impressive. Combined with Univision, the game garnered 8.6 million viewers.

Here is ESPN’s press release.

U.S. – Algeria: ESPN’s Highest-Rated and Most-Watched Soccer Telecast 

Thru 40 Games on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, Ratings Up 40% and Viewership Up 49% vs. 2006

ESPN3.com Logs Largest U.S. Audience for a Sports Event on the Web

Wednesday morning’s United States vs. Algeria FIFA World Cup match on ESPN – in which the Americans scored a dramatic goal in stoppage time to earn a 1-0 win and a spot in the Round of 16 – is the highest-rated andmost-watched soccer game in the history of ESPN networks, delivering a 4.6 rating (4.0 household U.S. rating), 4,582,000 households and 6,161,000 viewers for the two-hour contest (10 a.m. ET – noon).

The previous households record was set five days earlier with the U.S.-Slovenia match (June 18) – 3,906,000. 

Excluding holidays, ESPN’s coverage of the U.S.-Algeria game ranks as the most-watched weekday morning telecast ever for ESPN, surpassing the U.S.-Germany World Cup match from eight years ago (June 21, 2002) – 4.4 rating and 5,335,000 viewers. 

The game ranked as the highest-rated program of the day on any network among M18-34 and M18-49.

Through Wednesday, June 23 (40 games on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2), the 2010 World Cup is averaging a 1.8 U.S. rating (for the two-hour match window) — up 40% from 2006 (1.3).  Household impressions are up 46% (from 1,389,000 to 2,025,000) and P2+ impressions are up 49% (from 1,789,000 to 2,658,000).

San Diego was the top market for yesterday’s Team USA game, delivering an 8.9 rating – all the more impressive considering the 7 a.m. local start time.  Rounding out the top 10 were Baltimore (6.7), San Francisco (6.1), Washington, D.C. (5.4), Sacramento (5.4), Houston (5.4), Las Vegas (5.4), Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (5.3), New York (5.3) and West Palm Beach (5.3). San Diego was also the top market for both the U.S./England game on ABC (11.5) and the U.S./Slovenia game on ESPN (8.5).

U.S. – Algeria Sets Records for ESPN Digital Platforms

ESPN3.com – The U.S. vs. Algeria game marked a milestone for online video, logging the largest U.S. audience ever for a sports event on the web.  It attracted nearly 1.1 million unique viewers with an average time spent viewing of 43 minutes. The match also averaged 328,000 viewers per minute in its live coverage.  When combined with the concurrent England vs. Slovenia match, ESPN3.com reached its peak point of viewing at around 11:30 a.m. ET when 513,000 viewers were watching each minute.

For the four World Cup matches on June 23, ESPN3.com captured 1.4 million viewers who watched for 84 million total minutes.  Through 14 days of World Cup coverage (June 10-23), five million viewers have watched the World Cup on ESPN3.com and consumed more than 9.2 million total hours.

ESPN.com & ESPNSoccernet.com – ESPNsoccernet.com set an all-time record Wednesday with more visits than any day in its history. On June 23, ESPN.com World Cup content generated 8.8 million visits and 33.3 million page views.  To date, the site has had 68.7 million visits and 239.3 million page views of World Cup coverage. 

Additionally, GameCast for the U.S. vs. Algeria match reached one million visitors who spent 10.1 million total minutes watching the match. ESPN.com also logged a record day of delivering live scoring updates to fans.  The site peaked at 1.7 million concurrent users, beating its previous record by 42 percent.

ESPN Digital Audio – ESPNRadio.com logged the largest concurrent audience ever to a single stream according to Ando Media.  The player peaked at 180,000 listeners connected to the U.S. vs. Algeria match, nearly doubling its previous record for the U.S. vs. Slovenia (June 18).  Additionally, ESPNRadio.com saw record online traffic with 668,000 visits and 1.1 million page views throughout the day, according to Omniture.

From June 11-20, the World Cup had generated nearly 3.8 million total listening hours, with an average time spent listening of 47 minutes.

ESPN Mobile — June 23 was the most-trafficked day to-date for World Cup content across all of ESPN’s mobile platforms. ESPN’s FIFA World Cup 2010 iPhone app delivered 3.2 million visits and 19.9 million page views for the day.  Since the World Cup began, the app has seen 30.8 million visits and 200.6 million page views. World Cup content on the ESPN mobile Web site also added another 2.4 million visits and 13.7 million page views to the mobile tally.  To date, the mobile Web has generated 20.2 million visits and 90.7 million page views.

Nearly 650,000 users accessed the U.S. vs. Algeria match via mobile GameCast and generated 7.9 million minutes of usage.

World Cup Schedule – Round of 16

The 2010 FIFA World Cup continues with the Round of 16 elimination matches starting Saturday, June 26, on ESPN and ABC. Six of the eight matchups have already been determined, including the highly anticipated U.S. vs. Ghana (Saturday, 2 p.m./ABC), Germany vs. England (Sunday, 9:30 a.m./ESPN) and Argentina vs. Mexico (Sunday, 2 p.m./ABC). Round of 16 matches will also be available on ESPN3.com, ESPN Radio, ESPN 3D, ESPN Mobile TV and ESPN Deportes.

Date	Time (ET)	Matchup	Site	Network
Sat, June 26	9:30 a.m.	Uruguay (A1) vs.South Korea (B2)	Port Elizabeth	ESPN/ESPN3.com/ ESPN Radio
	2 p.m.	United States (C1) vs. Ghana (D2)	Rustenburg	ABC/ESPN Radio
Sun, June 27	9:30 a.m.	Germany (D1) vs.England (C2)	Bloemfontein	ESPN/ESPN3.com/ ESPN Radio
	2 p.m.	Argentina (1B) vs.Mexico (A2)	Johannesburg	ABC/ESPN 3D/ESPN Radio
Mon, June 28	9:30 a.m.	Netherlands (E1) vs. Slovakia (F2)	Durban	ESPN/ESPN3.com/ ESPN 3D/ESPN Radio
	2 p.m.	TBD (G1) vs.TBD (H2)	Johannesburg	ESPN/ESPN3.com/ ESPN 3D/ESPN Radio
Tues,  June 29	9:30 a.m.	Paraguay (F1) vs. Japan (E2)	Pretoria	ESPN/ESPN3.com/ ESPN Radio
	2 p.m.	TBD (H1) vs.TBD (G2)	Cape Town	ESPN/ESPN3.com/ ESPN Radio

Very good ratings.