NEW YORK, July 22 -- The final score was Spain 1, Argentina 0. The other number that mattered Sunday came from Nielsen Media Research: more than 61 million Americans watched, the largest audience ever assembled in the United States for a soccer match.

Fox's English-language broadcast drew 38.937 million viewers, according to data released by the network Tuesday, a record that superseded every prior benchmark for soccer on American television. At peak, 51.685 million viewers tuned in simultaneously, a figure that would rank as a major event by any measure. Telemundo's Spanish-language broadcast added another 22.6 million, bringing the combined total to more than 61 million and positioning the final as one of the most-watched sporting even...