Fans might have stayed until the end to see if Carli Lloyd would score a fourth goal. Or they might have been waiting for Abby Wambach to enter the game for what seems virtually certain to be her World Cup farewell. Or perhaps they simply wanted to see the United States team celebrate the country’s first World Cup in 16 years in front of a buoyant capacity crowd of American fans in Vancouver. 
 
 At Fox, there was some shock on Monday at the record size of Sunday’s audience. 
 
 “No question, I underestimated where this would be,” said Mike Mulvihill, senior vice president for programming and research for Fox Sports. “It’s one of the most pleasant surprises we’ve ever had.” 
 
 He said he thought viewership might reach 19 million, which would have beaten the 17.9 million for the 1999 Women’s World Cup final, in which the United States beat China in a penalty-kick shootout on ABC. That figure would also have topped the record 18.2 million English-language viewers for the United States-Portugal group-stage game in the 2014 men’s World Cup. But 25 million seemed well out of reach. 
 
 “I was blown away,” Mulvihill said. 
 
 He added that the viewership figures showed that 1.7 viewers in each home were watching the game, a little higher than usual for sports events. “That suggested more group viewing than we anticipated,” Mulvihill said, comparing it to gatherings common for Thanksgiving N.F.L. games. 
 
 Major sports events often attract casual viewers who might not be riveted to an entire season or tournament. Droves of casual viewers seem to have poured in on Sunday as viewership more than tripled from the 8.4 million for the United States-Germany World Cup semifinal last Tuesday night. 
 
 Desser cautioned against looking at Sunday’s well-watched final as a significant signpost for added growth for soccer in the United States. 
 
 “It was a very interesting event that took place at a good time of day in the right hemisphere, and there were good story lines,” he said. “But you won’t see a material difference in the sports business off this event. ||||| Women's World Cup final seen by record 26.7 million in US 
 
 The United States women's soccer team are World Cup champions again after 16 years. 
 
 NEW YORK -- The United States' win over Japan in the Women's World Cup final was the most viewed soccer game in the history of American television. 
 
 The 5-2 victory Sunday, which gave the Americans a record third title, was seen by 26.7 million viewers. 
 
 Fox said Monday its English-language coverage drew a 12.9 rating was seen by an average of 25.4 million, and NBC's Telemundo said its telecast averaged 1.27 million. The audience peaked at 30.9 million from 8:30-8:45 p.m. as the game neared its end, and 43.2 million tuned into some portion of the match. 
 
 Average viewership topped the previous mark of 26.5 million set when Germany beat Argentina in last year's men's World Cup final. That was seen by 17.3 million on ABC and 9.2 million on Spanish-language Univision. 
 
 Fox's viewership set a U.S. English-language record for soccer, topping the 18.22 million tuned to ESPN for the 2-2 draw between the American men and Portugal in the group stage on June 22 last year. 
 
 The previous high for a women's match was 17,975,000 on ABC for the United States' penalty kicks win over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup final. 
 
 Fox's viewership for this year's final at Vancouver, British Columbia, which started at 7 p.m. EDT, was nearly double the 13,458,000 that watched Japan's penalty-kicks win over the United States in the 2011 final. That game, played in Frankfurt, Germany, started at 2:45 p.m. EDT. 
 
 Fox's audience for the final exceeded the viewers for San Francisco's win over Kansas City in Game 7 of last year's World Series on Fox (23.5 million), Golden State's NBA title-winning victory over Cleveland last month on ABC (23,254,000) and Chicago's Stanley Cup-winning victory in Game 6 over Tampa Bay last month on NBC (8,005,000). 
 
 It was the highest for any U.S. broadcast since an average of 28.3 million saw Duke beat Wisconsin on CBS to win the NCAA men's basketball title in April. 
 
 The 52 World Cup matches on Fox, Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2 averaged 1,824,000, a 21 percent increase from the average of 1,511,000 for the 32 games of the 2011 tournament on ESPN and ESPN2. 
 
 St. Louis had the highest average for the seven U.S. matches at 8.0, followed by Kansas City (7.5), Washington, D.C. (7.3), Austin, Texas (6.6), San Diego (6.4), Richmond, Virginia (6.2), and Denver and Baltimore (6.1). 
 
 An average of 232,000 unique streamers watched the final on Fox Sports Go, a record for the app. 
 
 In the weekend's other big soccer match, Chile's penalty-kicks win over Argentina in the finale of the Copa America tournament was viewed by 1.46 million in the United States: 464,000 on beIN Sports and 1 million on beIN Sports en Espanol.
– The 5-2 demolition of Japan that made the US the first country to win the Women's World Cup three times was America's greatest soccer triumph in more ways than one: It was seen by a total of 26.7 million US viewers—25.4 million on Fox and 1.27 on Telemundo—making it the most-watched soccer game, men's or women's, in US history, ESPN reports. The audience topped that of the deciding game of this year's NBA finals and of Game 7 in last year's World Series, reports the New York Times, which notes that viewers didn't tune out early despite the US taking a 4-0 lead within 16 minutes. (On Twitter, some of the gloating got ugly.)