World Cup Ratings Down Significantly

The Americans’ first World Cup game in France drew the biggest U.S. television audience since the tournament began but ratings are down overall.

The overnight rating for the U.S.-Germany game was 4.4, the network said.

When the World Cup was held in the U.S. in 1994, the three ABC games featuring the Americans averaged a 7.0 rating. ABC averaged a 5.3 rating overall in 1994.

ESPN averaged an 0.8 rating for its four games, down from 1.9 in 1994.

A rating point represents 980,000 households for ABC and 730,000 for ESPN.