Take that, soccer skeptics!

Last week’s blockbuster World Cup clash between the US and Germany was a record event for ESPN’s online channel, WatchESPN, on a number of different counts.

The sports behemoth’s online stream of the big match drew:

A total of 3.2 million viewers during the entire telecast window.

1.7 million peak concurrent viewers (the highest number of viewers watching at the same time)

An average audience of 1,049,769 viewers per minute

Earlier this year, Fox claimed that it had broken a new online streaming record for a US sports event when its online telecast of the Super Bowl drew 1.1 million peak concurrent viewers and an average audience of 528,000 viewers per minute. So it looks like we have a new champion.

That said, in old fashioned TV, the US-Germany game didn’t come anywhere near reaching the Super Bowl’s massive, record audience of 111.5 million viewers, with 10.7 million people tuning in . So, the high streaming numbers for last week’s World Cup clash possibly reflect the fact that the game was on during work hours, and many people don’t have televisions at work. Also, a Fox spokesperson told TechCrunch that its stream wasn’t available on mobile devices.

Still, its a pretty impressive result for ESPN, and for the sport of soccer in the US. Even more so when you consider another 750,000 fans tuned into Univision’s online stream for the game (which, as we keep telling you, has been available for free, without a cable subscription.)

Either that, or a sign of the nation’s moral decay.