Can you read? The article says the World cup is having higher ratings than the NBA Finals & the Stanley Cup Finals, both being at night while the World Cup is being played during work hours. And we just got to the knock out rounds in the World cup.
Let the World Cup be every year instead of every 4 years and see how the ratings would go. What you have here is kind of the "Olympics" effect; something that's rare and has an exotic attraction of a bunch of different countries in it. Don't forget, once every 4 years, you'll get people in this country to watch figure skating! If you really want to see how popular soccer is, check out the ratings for MPLS.