World Cup final between Spain and Argentina watched by roughly 60 million on Fox and Telemundo

There are a lot of things that could have gone wrong during this summer's World Cup — a complicated logistical undertaking that included three host nations, 16 stadiums, 48 teams, 104 games and endless opportunities for controversy on and off the soccer field.

But in retrospect, a lot of things went right.

The United States, Canada and Mexico spent nearly six weeks hosting soccer's biggest showcase and — at least for the most part — the action stayed on the field.

Fox said Tuesday that the Spain-Argentina final drew 38.937 million viewers — including a peak of 51.685 million — which easily set the record as the most-watched English-language soccer telecast in U.S. history, according to Nielsen Media Research. Spain won the final 1-0 in extra time.

Telemundo’s preliminary numbers for its Spanish-language broadcast said the game had a total audience of 22.6 million, putting the total number of viewers in the U.S. at more than 60 million.

Star players like Argentina's Lionel Messi, France's Kylian Mbappé and Norway's Erling Haaland became household names across North America, television ratings remained high in the U.S. even after the Americans were eliminated and despite high ticket prices, most games featured packed stadiums.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino gave effusive praise to the host countries on Sunday.

Fox broadcast all 104 games in English on its platforms and American viewership remained strong even after the U.S. was eliminated by Belgium in the round of 16.

Spanish broadcasts on Telemundo were also a popular option — even for non-native speakers.

Fox averaged 7.737 million viewers for the 104 broadcasts on Fox, FS1 and Tubi — up from 3.588 million in 2022 and 2.77 million in 2018.

Though Nielsen's viewership numbers give a window into the World Cup final’s widespread popularity, it's a challenge to reflect how many people actually watched since some viewed the game in group settings such as watch parties. In 2025, Nielsen expanded its out-of-home measurement system to try and get a more accurate count.

Despite a few early hiccups, stadium attendance was also strong throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

“We have had a record number of spectators in the stadiums, almost 7 million," Infantino said. “We will have had, I mean the official figures will come out soon, but probably over 6 billion people watching it from home.”

Fans and players from other countries found out what Americans, Canadians and Mexicans have known for a long time — it can get pretty hot here in the summer. Climate change isn't helping matters.

But Mother Nature could have been a lot meaner than she decided to be.

Even so, there were a handful of games that featured particularly hot and muggy conditions. The best example was a knockout-round game between Paraguay and France on July 4 in Philadelphia when temperatures hovered around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius).

The World Cup final on Sunday also dodged a potential problem when smoke from Canadian wildfires that wrapped the Northeast in haze mostly cleared from the New Jersey area just in time thanks to some well-timed thunderstorms.

This year's 48-team World Cup field was the biggest in the tournament's history and many thought it would water down the competition.

That wasn't the case.

Cape Verde held eventual champion Spain to a draw in its opening game, advanced to the round of 32 and gave Argentina a scare before losing 3-2 in extra time in a World Cup classic. Congo also advanced beyond the group stage and pushed England before eventually losing, while Curaçao was still in with a chance of making the knockouts going into its final group match.

After those Cinderella stories, fans eventually got to enjoy semifinal games full of heavyweights. England, Argentina, Spain and France were the top four in the world rankings.

The World Cup is famously a petri dish for political conflict, and this year's version provided its share of strife.

Iran's participation in the tournament amid the war in the Middle East was a particularly thorny issue and the team had to move its base camp from Arizona to Mexico. The Iranians' participation was overshadowed by travel complaints and visa issues, with the U.S. refusing visas to several members of Iran’s delegation.

U.S. President Donald Trump's relationship with Infantino was scrutinized after American striker Folarin Balogun’s one-game ban for a red card was suspended ahead of the team’s round of 16 game against Belgium.

Travel restrictions for a series of countries prevented some fans from traveling to the U.S., but there were no reports of the aggressive immigration enforcement that some human rights groups had feared could take place around World Cup stadiums.

Infantino brushed aside most of the controversies, instead focusing on the positives. While the FIFA president has a vested interest in painting a rosy picture of this year's World Cup, there's little doubt the tournament was a hit from a soccer perspective.

“I think we have to invent a new vocabulary, new words to define the success of this World Cup,” Infantino said.

AP Soccer Writer James Robson and AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy contributed to this story.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

France's Kylian Mbappe (10) takes a shot as England's Ezri Konsa (2) defends during the World Cup third-place playoff soccer match between France and England in Miami Gardens, Fla., Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Jude Bellingham celebrates England's victory over Norway in a World Cup quarterfinal soccer match in Miami Gardens, Fla., Saturday, July 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Argentina's Lionel Messi (10) cries at the end of the World Cup final soccer match between Spain and Argentina in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Spain players, from left, cheer alongside President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the conclusion of the World Cup championship final soccer match between Spain and Argentina in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge is set to decide at a hearing that opens Tuesday whether there is enough evidence to put singer D4vd on trial in the killing and dismemberment of a 14-year-old girl that authorities said had threatened to expose their relationship.

Prosecutors have said the evidence will show that 21-year-old D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, brought Celeste Rivas Hernandez to the Hollywood Hills house he was renting, stabbed her multiple times then cut apart her body in his garage using chain saws.

The preliminary hearing in Los Angeles is expected to last about four days and will look much like an abbreviated trial. There is no jury. Judge Charlaine Olmedo will decide whether the prosecution offered enough evidence to demonstrate probable cause to proceed to trial.

It will be the first public presentation of evidence against Burke, who was arrested in April and pleaded not guilty to murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains. His attorney, Blair Berk, has said Burke is not responsible for Rivas Hernandez's death.

The defendant, who has been held without bail in a jail near the courthouse since his arrest, will appear in court in his jail clothes, after the judge rejected a request that he be able to wear a suit as is usually allowed at a jury trial. No cameras will be allowed in the courtroom.

Soon after his arrest, prosecutors filed a memo, which the defense unsuccessfully tried to have sealed, outlining what their evidence would show at this hearing.

The filing said Burke met Rivas Hernandez when she was 11, began sexually abusing her when she was 13 and he was 18, and killed her when she threatened to report him.

She was reported missing multiple times in the years before her death, and prosecutors said they have evidence she was with Burke for long stretches, including a trip to Texas where she met his family. Detectives had contacted him about her, but authorities say he lied and said he had only met her once and didn't know she was a minor. Prosecutors said they have sexual text messages and photos the two exchanged.

A court filing said he sent a car to pick her up on the night of April 23, 2025, from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, California, some 80 miles (129 km) outside of Los Angeles. The two exchanged messages until she arrived at his Hollywood home, after which her phone went dead.

“Knowing he had to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened, very soon after her arrival at his home, defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out,” the document said.

Prosecutors said they have records showing Burke ordered chain saws and wading pools that he used to dismember her body in his garage, and that her DNA was found there on blood stains discovered when police served a search warrant.

They said he then drove around for months with the body in the trunk. About four months after her death, her decomposing body was found in the Tesla registered to Burke that had been towed from the Hollywood Hills in September.

Prosecutors said the car was parked around the corner from his house, and surveillance video will show he was the last person to drive it.

It's not entirely clear why it took seven more months to arrest Burke — though uncooperative witnesses had to be subpoenaed and the final autopsy report showing she was stabbed was not released until December.

The defense has not publicly provided its version of events.

Preliminary hearings like this one serve a similar function to that of grand jury proceedings. Prosecutors generally present only as much evidence as they think they need to, and witnesses are kept to a minimum — mostly police and other investigators. For defense attorneys, it can provide ways to explore potential weaknesses in witness testimony that they can exploit at a trial.

D4vd began making music for YouTube he created of the video game Fortnite when he was a teenager.

The songs he wrote and recorded on his phone were a blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. The music made him a phenomenon on TikTok, Instagram, Soundcloud and Spotify, where his top songs, including his 2022 breakthrough “Romantic Homicide,” have more than a billion plays. In 2023, he released two EPs and opened for SZA on tour.

He performed at last year's Coachella music festival just a few weeks before prosecutors said Rivas Hernandez was killed, and his album was released. Five months later, he was on tour promoting it in when the body was discovered.

In this courtroom sketch, David Anthony Burke, also known as D4vd, far right, is seen in court Tuesday, July 21, 2026, in Los Angeles, during his trial for the killing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. (Bill Robles via AP)

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman speaks to reporters in Los Angeles Tuesday, July 21, 2026, regarding the case of David Anthony Burke, known as D4vd, who was charged with killing a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered body was found in his car. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

In this courtroom sketch, David Anthony Burke, who is known as D4vd, is seen in court Tuesday, July 21, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Bill Robles via AP)

FILE - D4vd appears at Variety's Power of Young Hollywood in Los Angeles on Aug. 8, 2024. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - David Anthony Burke, whose stage name is D4vd, is arraigned in Los Angeles, April 20, 2026, on charges of killing a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered body was found in his car. (Ted Soqui/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - A makeshift Memorial for Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who was killed and found inside a vehicle owned by singer D4vd, is placed outside her home in Lake Elsinore, Calif., on April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, file)

FILE - A makeshift memorial for Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose body was found inside a vehicle owned by singer D4vd, is displayed outside her home in Lake Elsinore, Calif., on April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)