President Donald Trump was everywhere during the World Cup. He chaired a White House task force, attended the draw, presented the trophy, and even called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to review a red card for U.S. striker Folarin Balogun. FIFA later put Balogun's one-match ban on probation, a move that UEFA, European soccer's governing body, called "unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable."
You would expect that kind of involvement to turn the tournament into another political battleground. But a new CNBC survey of 1,000 registered voters suggests it did not.
Among Democrats, that number was 51%. Among Republicans, it was 47%.
Independents landed at 47%.
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The survey also revealed sharp divides by income and education. Among those earning $100,000 or more, 59% watched, compared to just 31% of those making under $30,000. Similarly, 65% of postgraduate degree holders tuned in, versus 40% of those with only a high school education. These gaps illustrate that while the World Cup crosses party lines, it still skews toward higher socioeconomic status - a pattern seen in other sports like tennis and golf.
Jay Campbell, a partner at the Democratic polling firm Hart Research (which co-conducted the poll with Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies), said the World Cup "crosses partisanship, one of the few things in the world that seems to at the moment." Micah Roberts, a partner at the Republican firm, added that the World Cup is "where Democrats and Republicans agree."
The overall viewership: 8% of voters picked soccer as their favorite sport, 17% reported watching "a lot" of the World Cup, and 32% watched "some." The numbers looked very different depending on income and education.
One of the most striking findings was how many people watched matches that had nothing to do with the United States. Overall, 88% of viewers tuned into games that did not feature the U.S. team. And yet only 50% of MAGA Republicans watched any World Cup at all, compared to 46% of non-MAGA Republicans.
The survey, conducted by Hart Research and Public Opinion Strategies, has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
When a major event crosses party lines this cleanly, it catches the attention of advertisers, media companies, and anyone who buys and sells sports rights. A bipartisan audience is a rare asset right now. Most big-ticket cultural events have become politically sorted, but the World Cup seems to have sidestepped that.
The bottom line: If you own stocks in broadcasters, streaming platforms, or companies that sponsor global sports, the data suggests the World Cup still delivers a broad, engaged audience. The Balogun red-card controversy did not appear to hurt viewership. Trump is expected to present the trophy again at the final in MetLife Stadium, so the political spotlight will stay on.
But the real takeaway is simpler. The World Cup managed to pull Democrats, Republicans, and independents into the same room. For investors, that kind of unity is worth watching - especially in a market where consumer attention is getting harder to capture.
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