Post-mortem: Heat, seats and surprises

Tiny US television audience

The streaming service DAZN bought the global broadcast rights, and sublicensed 24 of the 63 matches to TNT Sports, which averaged 418,000 viewers for the first 23 matches with English-language commentary on TNT, TBS and truTV. Seventeen matches sublicensed to TelevisaUnivision with Spanish commentary averaged 551,000.

By comparison, NBC's networks averaged 510,000 viewers per round for the Premier League in 2024-25, regular-season Major League Baseball is averaging 1.841 million this year on Fox and 1.74 million on the cable network ESPN. The NFL averaged 17.5 million during the 2024 regular season. DAZN has not yet released figures, but says it will within the week.

Hot seat

The temperature was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 C) for many matches, with humidity that made it closer to 100 F (38 C). "Honestly, the heat is incredible," Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez said.

"Playing in this temperature is very dangerous."

Six games were disrupted due to weather for a total of eight hours and 29 minutes, raising questions over the suitability of the US for next year's World Cup during a time of global warming. Only four of the 11 US World Cup venues have a roof, including one that isn't temperature controlled.