Argentina vs. Cape Verde Had More TV Viewers Than Basically Every College Football Game

The 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup is putting up monster TV ratings on FOX.

The 2026 tournament, which started in early June, is set to wrap up next weekend, with the final on Sunday, July 19. There are still plenty of big games left. There are four quarterfinals games, set to begin on Thursday and run through Saturday night. The semifinals will be early next week, followed by a third place game and championship game next weekend.

Fans have been flocking to both the stadiums and their TV sets, to watch the games throughout the tournament. TV ratings are standing out.

The most-impressive TV ratings number might be that of the Argentina vs. Cape Verde game, which took place on Friday, July 3.

Argentina pulled it out, 3-2, in stunning fashion. But Cape Verde nearly pulled off the win of the tournament.

The TV ratings reflect that in a big way.

TV ratings for Argentina vs. Cape Verde were monstrous

The TV ratings for the Argentina vs. Cape Verde game were bigger than every regular season college football game last year, except for Ohio State vs. Michigan and Texas vs. Ohio State.

The game peaked at roughly 22 million viewers and had an official TV rating of more than 15 million viewers.

"The Argentina-Cabo Verde viewership number is incredible. That number tops every 2025 World Series game except Games 6 and 7 and would beat every college football regular season game last year except Michigan-Ohio State and Texas-Ohio State," Richard Deitsch wrote.

Even though the U.S. has been eliminated from World Cup contention, it's clear that fans are still desperate for soccer games on TV right now.

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This story was originally published July 8, 2026 at 8:30 PM.