The first hurdle has been cleared, both for the German national soccer team and for ARD. Although the team of national coach Julian Nagelsmann (38) lost its last group stage match against Ecuador, ARD emerges as the winner. Not only were Thursday's TV ratings convincing, but the online offerings have also performed well so far, as announced in an interim report on the 2026 World Cup. Previously, it had already been determined by AGF Videoforschung that almost 18.5 million people in Germany had tuned in to the June 25 match on Erste. This was enough for an excellent market share of nearly 72 percent.
After the national team completed the group phase, ARD published an interim report covering both linear TV and online accessible offerings. Accordingly, ARD reached an average of nearly 7.4 million viewers with all 14 matches shown that kicked off before 02:00 AM German time - an average market share of 43.3 percent.
Ratings Highlights Were Two Germany Matches
The most successful matches for ARD during the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the USA in terms of ratings so far were two of the DFB team's group matches. According to ARD, the team's opening match against Curaçao was watched by an average of 24 million people (70 percent market share), and the second most successful match was the previously mentioned game against Ecuador. Overall, TV broadcasts on ARD have reached nearly 49 million viewers in Germany so far - representing 61.6 percent of all potential TV users here.
The online offerings via ARD Mediathek and at sportschau.de were also successful according to the report. There have been approximately 24 million views so far. Here too, the first group match against Curaçao was the ratings highlight with around 6.5 million views.
How It Continues on Erste and ZDF
ARD and ZDF will broadcast a total of 60 matches of the 2026 World Cup live without a paid subscription, including the final and all other matches involving Germany. MagentaTV meanwhile holds the rights to broadcast all 104 matches of the tournament live.
On June 28, the round of sixteen match between South Africa and Canada will be shown live on Erste and in the Mediathek at 9:00 PM. Additionally, on June 30 starting at 7:00 PM, the match between Ivory Coast and a yet to be determined opponent will be shown, on July 1 starting at 6:00 PM the match with the winner of the England group, starting at 10:00 PM the game with the winner of the Belgium group, and on July 2 starting at 9:00 PM the match with the first place team from the Spain group.
ZDF will broadcast, among others, on June 27 and in the night of June 28 some of the last group stage matches, including Croatia against Ghana starting at 11:00 PM, Colombia against Portugal starting at 1:30 AM, and Algeria against Austria starting at 4:00 AM. Matches will also be shown on ZDF during the knockout phase in addition to the final. Germany's match on June 29 will be broadcast live starting at 10:30 PM. It has been confirmed so far that the DFB team will face the third-place team from Group A, B, C, D or F in the round of sixteen.
