The 2026 FIFA World Cup keeps shattering television viewership benchmarks in the United States. Spain’s semifinal victory over France pulled in an average of 11.5 million viewers on Fox, the largest audience ever recorded for a World Cup men’s semifinal on English-language American television.

The Tuesday broadcast topped every previous English-language semifinal telecast in tournament history, and viewership climbed as high as 15.56 million around 4:45 p.m. ET during the match. For comparison, the prior record-holder was the 2022 France-Morocco semifinal, which drew 6.595 million viewers — meaning this year’s number represented a 76% jump over the 2022 semifinal average on Fox.

That record may not survive the week. Wednesday’s semifinal between England and Argentina in Atlanta was already underway and had a real shot at surpassing Tuesday’s 11.462 million viewer mark.

Spain dominated an off-color France side to win 2-0 and punch their ticket to the final. Playing in front of a home-crowd atmosphere in Arlington, Texas, Luis de la Fuente’s squad thoroughly outplayed the pre-tournament favorites. Mikel Oyarzabal opened the scoring in the 22nd minute, converting a penalty after Lucas Digne fouled Lamine Yamal inside the box, and Pedro Porro doubled the lead in the 58th minute off a combination with Dani Olmo. France’s high-powered attack, featuring Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé, was held almost entirely in check.

The win sends Spain to its first World Cup final since 2010, when the team lifted the trophy in South Africa. France, meanwhile, will play in Saturday’s third-place match in Miami against whichever team loses the England-Argentina semifinal.

The U.S. numbers fit a broader pattern this summer. Fox’s broadcast of the U.S. men’s national team’s July 6 match against Belgium averaged 33.086 million viewers, the most-watched soccer telecast in American history, while Telemundo’s July 5 Mexico-England match became the most-watched Spanish-language broadcast of all time in the U.S., per NBCUniversal research.

The excitement wasn’t limited to American audiences, either. In Spain, the match brought the country to a standstill, with the joint broadcast pulling an 81.3% audience share and an average of 14.514 million viewers — and public broadcaster TVE’s La 1 alone drew 12.716 million viewers for a 71.2% share.

Spain will now face the winner of England-Argentina in Sunday’s final in New York/New Jersey.