An average of 12.2 million viewers in France watched the FIFA World Cup 2026 match between Les Bleus and Paraguay on July 4th, with the channel’s audience share hitting 76 per cent – with 87 per cent of the 25-49 year-old audience and 55 per cent of the 15-34s.

M6 Group, which holds the FTA rights to the competition in France, claimed an “historical audience record for a late time slot” that saw the French team qualify for the quarter-finals. Les Bleus beat Paraguay 1-0 through a 70th penalty taken by Kylian Mbappé. France will now face Morocco on July 9th.

Since the opening of the tournament, broadcasting the World Cup has enabled M6 to achieve significant ratings in June, and become the third-largest national channel, overtaking France 3.

The French team’s game against Senegal on June 16th drew approximately 14 million viewers followed by 13.7 million for the game against Norway (on June 26th) – with larger audiences (than the Paraguay game) attributed to the earlier kick-off times.

In April, M6 Group said it anticipated a strong audience and growing ad revenues for Q2 owing to the drawing power of the FIFA World Cup.

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Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Consumer Behaviour, Content, Research

Tags: france, m6, Mbappé, Paraguay, World Cup