If this World Cup proved anything, besides how far behind the rest of the world the U.S. men’s soccer team is, it’s that soccer is no longer a fringe sport in this country.

After a wildly successful month, Sunday’s World Cup final drew 17 million American viewers, more people than watched Tiger Woods’ most recent major win, a non-figure skating night of the Winter Olympics, or the season finale of “The Apprentice.”

The final between France and Italy averaged nearly 12 million viewers on ABC and 5 million on Univision, according to early numbers released yesterday by Nielsen.

ABC’s 8.6 overnight Nielsen rating and 19 share among households for Sunday's final game, which aired at 2 p.m., was 110 percent higher than 2002's final, which aired in an unfortunate 7 a.m. timeslot from Korea. Italy won the game.

More significantly, it was also up 25 percent from 1998, when the France vs. Brazil final, the most recent one held in Europe, earned a 6.9/17. That should help prove that ratings for the tournament weren’t merely boosted by better timeslots but by a growing interest in soccer.

During the 4:30 to 5 p.m. slot, the last half hour of Sunday's game, ABC drew a 10.7/22 overnight rating for the game-ending penalty kicks. It was the third-most-watched men’s soccer game in U.S. history, though still well behind the 14.5 million who watched the 1994 final, when the U.S. hosted the World Cup.

The 5 million who watched the final on Univision was up 75 percent over 2002 and 16 percent over 1998.

Previous games in this year's tournament averaged 2.3 million viewers on Univision. ABC's averaged 3.8 million, but Univision and Telefutura did slightly better than English-language cable networks among adults 18-49, averaging 1.24 million per match.

Perhaps most telling, of the 50 million people who watched part of a game on Univision over the past month, 21 million were non-Hispanics. That shows that the game is catching on in this country, though it still has a very long way to go before becoming mainstream.

ESPN averaged an impressive 2.3 million viewers for its 20 games, 76 percent above 2002’s average.

The final’s overnight numbers put it not too far behind premier sporting events like this year’s men's NCAA basketball final at 11.2 on CBS and NASCAR's Daytona 500, which averaged an 11.3 this year on Fox Sports.

And even non-U.S. World Cup games were well ahead of ESPN men's college basketball average, OLN's hockey playoffs and final-day ratings for any major professional golf tournaments.