The US World Cup opener against Paraguay pulled in 27.5 million viewers across Fox and Telemundo, a number that matches the Christmas Day audience for the Lions-Vikings game on Netflix. That Netflix broadcast was a regular-season streaming record. The World Cup just matched it on its opening night.
The initial preliminary figure came in at 24.886 million, but the official count climbed significantly higher, as reported by Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal. The 2026 tournament, hosted in North America for the first time, appears to be rewriting that script in real time.
Crypto’s World Cup moment
Kraken was announced as FIFA’s Official Crypto Exchange Supporter between June 9 and 13, placing the exchange’s brand directly in front of what is shaping up to be one of the most-watched sporting events in US history.
Prediction markets are treating this tournament like a liquidity event. Polymarket is estimating World Cup-related volumes nearing $2 billion. When you combine traditional and crypto-native betting activity, total projections for the tournament exceed $5 billion.
