With 17.05 million fans at the 1-1 draw between Germany and Spain, ZDF recorded a record rating during the World Cup in Qatar on Sunday.
The market share was 49.3 percent.
9.23 million (MA: 59.7 percent) watched the first German World Cup preliminary round match against Japan (1:2) in the live broadcast on ARD.
The opening match between Qatar and Ecuador, with 6.21 million spectators, had the highest ratings for games without German participation.
4.95 million viewers (MA: 24.8 percent) watched Croatia's 4-1 win over Canada in the early evening of Sunday's second game.
3.71 million (MA: 26.2 percent) watched the surprising 2-0 defeat of Belgium, third in the World Cup, against Morocco during the ZDF live broadcast.
2.36 million (MA: 20.8 percent) watched Costa Rica's 1-0 win against Japan in the German group in the morning.
The game of the DFB selection against the former world and European champions from Spain is well above all other coverage of the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF during the World Cup in Qatar.
All 64 World Cup games will also be broadcast live by the MagentaTV streaming service.
Meanwhile, after criticizing a comment made by their expert Sandro Wagner during the World Cup match between Germany and Spain, ZDF has announced that it will hold talks with its TV expert.
The former professional footballer said in the 79th minute: "I thought the whole corner was full of Germany fans.
Only then did I realize that these are Qatari bathrobes.” Wagner was referring to the long white robes traditionally called Thaub in Qatar, which many men also wear in the stadium.
The statement was criticized by some users on Twitter.
The ZDF "Sportstudio" responded in a reply to a tweet on the subject: "Sandro Wagner's statement about the Thawb unfortunately happened in an emotional phase of the game.
It's not allowed.
We'll discuss that."