Despite the time delay, about 1.5 million people are believed to have watched the match live with a further two million watching delayed highlights. Further records are also expected to be broken when the US face Germany in their quarter-final showdown on Friday.
Although the ratings surpass the viewing figures of the 1994 World Cup in the US, it is still significantly smaller than the number of viewers tuning it to watch other sports - the recently completed NBA Finals averaged 10.8 million households over four games.
And compared with other countries, World Cup fever in the US is far from gripping the nation. In the UK, for example, up to 30 million, or over half the population, are believed to have watched England's defeat of Denmark on Saturday.
