How the World Cup became a US streaming success story

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers , a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week. The 2026 World Cup is breaking streaming records around the world: Brazil’s CazéTV YouTube livestream of that country’s opening game against Morocco surpassed 12 million concurrent viewers , a new milestone for YouTube. The South Korea versus Czech Republic game was streamed by 3.86 million viewers in South Korea at its peak, doubling a previous record set by BTS. And the BBC clocked more than 600,000 concurrent streams during the France-Senegal match-up, making it the biggest-ever live event streamed in 4K for the broadcaster. Even in the United States, where soccer traditionally isn’t as widely watched as other types of sports, the Cup seems to be striking a chord. The Mexico vs. South Korea game attracted an audience of 6.1 million viewers to Telemundo’s streaming platforms, making it the largest Spanish-language soccer stream shown to US audiences to date. And the opening game of the United States team attracted 1.1 million streaming viewers on Tubi alone, turning it into the most streamed English-language match of the team in World Cup history. The stateside success of the World Cup is the direct result of a series of unlikely business decisions, legal challenges, and regulatory pressures — a kind of perfect storm for the beautiful game. …