Record crowd turns out for semifinal win

It’s no longer debatable.

The U.S. has become a soccer country.

Another record audience tuned in for the semifinals of the Women’s World Cup on Fox Tuesday night, becoming the most-watched soccer game in network history.

It also drove home the growing popularity of soccer in the United States, after years as a second-tier sport.

The game averaged 8.4 million total viewers, according to Nielsen, becoming the third-most-watched women’s soccer game ever in the United States.

It trails only the 1999 WWC final between the U.S. and China, which averaged 17.975 million, and the Japan-U.S. final in 2011, which averaged 13.5 million.

It was way up from the 5.7 million who watched the U.S. take down China in the quarterfinals last Friday, a game that aired on Fox Sports 1.

The Americans advanced to Sunday’s final with a 2-0 victory over Germany, the world’s top-ranked team.

Japan also advanced to the final with a 2-1 victory over England on Wednesday. It will play the U.S., which is going for its third World Cup title, in a rematch of the 2011 final.

This year’s Women’s World Cup has averaged 1.3 million viewers per game across Fox, FS1 and Fox Sports 2, up 45 percent over the 899,000 ESPN and ESPN2 averaged during the same time in 2011.

It echoes the popularity of the 2014 men’s World Cup on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, which saw huge gains over 2010.

This suggests soccer truly is finding its place in the U.S. The women’s ratings have arguably been driven by the success of the U.S. team, but the U.S. men did not advance nearly as far last year.

That’s not to say that Major League Soccer will suddenly become a huge draw, but clearly there is an audience for soccer. And that makes Fox’s decision to pay upwards of $400 million to secure World Cup rights over the next seven years appear all the smarter.

Tags: FIFA, fox, record, semifinals, soccer, sports tv, women's world cup, World Cup