Briefly
- Friday’s Socceroo World Cup match became the highest-rated match in SBS history.
- Nearly five million people watched Australia draw 0-0 against Paraguay.
Records were broken on Friday as millions of Australians tuned in to watch the Socceroos play their highest-stakes 2026 FIFA World Cup match to date.
According to the Virtual Australia (VOZ) national ratings, it was the most-watched World Cup match in history on SBS, attracting almost five million viewers.
At midday on Friday, excited fans were loud in pubs and venues across the country, skipping work and school to witness Australia reach the knockout stages of the tournament with draw with Paraguay,
After a devastating loss for the US In the tournament’s second group match last week, Australia needed to either beat Paraguay or draw to secure a place in the next stage, the round of 16.
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The young Socceroos team did it.
The Australia v Paraguay match was watched by a total of 4.844 million viewers, with a combined average TV audience for linear television and digital streaming of 3.086 million.
It is the second most watched broadcast in SBS history, behind the Socceroos’ World Cup play-off victory over Uruguay in 2006 (3.416 million, average national audience).
The Paraguay-Australia post-match program attracted 2.872 million viewers and the pre-match program attracted 2.277 million viewers.
Between the live matches and pre- and post-match shows, SBS had the top three programs of the day and five of the top ten.
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SBS’s World Cup broadcast dominated free-to-air ratings on Fridays.
Collectively, 13.9 million Australians, or about half the population, watched some World Cup matches.
The Socceroos’ next game is at 4am on Saturday 4 July (AEST) in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, where they will face Egypt.
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