U.S. World Cup buzz building

From U.S. Soccer:

The U.S. Men’s National Team match against Algeria Wednesday was the highest-rated and most-watched soccer game in the history of ESPN networks, delivering a 4.6 rating, 4,582,000 households and 6,161,000 viewers.

The previous households record was set five days earlier with the U.S.-Slovenia match (3,906,000).

Excluding holidays, ESPN’s coverage of the U.S.-Algeria game ranks as the most-watched weekday morning telecast ever for ESPN, surpassing the U.S.-Germany World Cup match from eight years ago on June 21, 2002, (which had a) 4.4 rating and 5,335,000 viewers.

The game also marked a milestone for online video, with ESPN3.com logging the largest U.S. audience ever for a sports event on the web. It attracted nearly 1.1 million unique viewers with an average time spent viewing of 43 minutes.

Wonder how many (like me) had a laptop on the England-Slovenia game and the TV on the U.S.-Algeria game?

Up next: U.S.-Ghana 11:30 a.m. Saturday on ABC. Expect it to smash ratings records for soccer.

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