The 2026 FIFA World Cup begins with Mexico defeating South Africa 2-0 in the opening match on Thursday. Multiple outlets report that the game generates record viewership for the tournament’s broadcast partners. Deadline and Yahoo Sports say Mexico-South Africa draws about 6.3 million viewers in English-language coverage across Fox, Fox One and Tubi, citing a mix of early Nielsen ratings and internal data from the networks. Deadline also reports a separate, wider audience figure for Spanish-language and streaming distribution: 12.1 million viewers across NBCUniversal’s Telemundo and Peacock, as well as Telemundo streaming platforms, describing the match as the most-watched World Cup opening game across languages. Taken together, the coverage indicates the opener is setting new benchmarks for both English- and Spanish-language audiences, but the reported totals relate to different distribution networks rather than a single combined audience number. All sources agree on the match result and that the opener breaks viewership records for the 2026 tournament.