Spanish-language soccer has always drawn a devoted American audience. This summer it is drawing a historic one.
The numbers
Telemundo and its streaming sibling Peacock are averaging about 4.6 million viewers per match for the 2026 World Cup — more than double the 2.07 million they drew during the 2022 tournament in Qatar, The Hollywood Reporter reported. On the Telemundo broadcast network alone, the average is 2.6 million, up 73% from four years ago. Peacock has carried much of the rest, accounting for about 44% of the Spanish-language audience.
The growth outpaced even the network's own expectations. "I was not expecting 122 percent over 2022," Telemundo's Joaquín Duro said of the results, calling the tournament so far "an incredible win" for traditional television at a time when linear TV keeps losing ground to streaming.
Across both languages — Telemundo and Peacock plus the English-language Fox platforms — the tournament is averaging 9.65 million viewers a match in the United States, a 105% jump from 2022's 4.71 million.
Mexico, the engine
As ever, Mexico's national team is the biggest draw. Its group-stage match against South Korea pulled 14 million viewers across Telemundo and Peacock, which the network called a record for any Spanish-language soccer telecast in U.S. history. All three of Mexico's group games topped 10 million, and its knockout-round run has kept the numbers climbing.
That pull is not hard to explain. The 2026 World Cup is being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico — the first time the tournament has been staged in North America since the U.S. hosted in 1994 — putting matches in convenient time slots and stoking interest in communities with deep ties to the participating nations.
Why it resonates in Los Angeles
No market has more at stake in those numbers than Los Angeles. The region is home to one of the largest Mexican and Latino populations of any U.S. metro area, and Spanish-language broadcasts have long been a fixture of the city's sports culture — in living rooms, in restaurants, and on screens in neighborhoods from Boyle Heights to the San Fernando Valley. A record Spanish-language audience nationally is, in large part, an Angeleno audience.
A bright spot for old-fashioned TV
The Telemundo run is also a reminder that live sports remain one of the few things that can still gather a mass audience in real time. Streaming did much of the growth here — Peacock's share tripled from the last cup — but the broadcast network's own gains, up nearly three-quarters, cut against the industry's story of steady decline. For one summer, at least, a World Cup on home soil has made linear television feel current again. Whether that audience sticks around after the final whistle is the question the networks would love to answer.
