A group stage elimination may not have been the outcome the Canadian men’s national team was looking for in Qatar, but the team’s first World Cup appearance since 1986 was a ratings success for broadcast partner Bell Media.

According to preliminary Numeris data, Canada’s group stage match against Belgium last Wednesday had an average audience of 3.7 million viewers across TSN, CTV and RDS, with 8.9 million unique viewers tuning in for at least part of the game.

Then, Sunday morning’s match against Croatia – featuring Alphonso Davies scoring the Canada’s first ever World Cup goal – brought an AMA of 4.4 million, with 9.8 million unique viewers.

That makes the games the most-watched group stage World Cup matches ever in Canada, as well as the second- and third-highest rated sports broadcasts of the year. They are behind only the Super Bowl, which had an average audience of 8.1 million and 16.9 million unique Canadian viewers across the same three networks.

Ratings-wise, Canada’s group stage matches are in the same neighborhood as final matches from previous World Cups. The 2018 tournament final between France and Croatia had an average audience of 3.9 million, with 9.3 million unique viewers. In 2014, CBC’s broadcast of the final between Germany and Argentina had an average audience of 4.9 million, with 11.3 million unique viewers.

Digitally, Bell Media said the match against Belgium was the most live-streamed broadcast ever for TSN, though it did not provide exact numbers. On social, TSN’s accounts have earned 76 million views on TikTok and 15.9 million views on YouTube for World Cup-related content.

Though Canada is mathematically eliminated from the tournament, it has one group stage game remaining on Thursday morning against Morocco. Elsewhere at the World Cup, Saturday’s match between Argentina and Mexico on Saturday had an average audience of 1.8 million, with Spain and Germany’s match on Sunday earning an average audience of 1.5 million viewers.