The game of the national team against Costa Rica at the soccer World Cup in Qatar achieved the highest number of TV viewers of this tournament so far in Germany.
However, the DFB men could not reach the top value of the German women at the European Championships in the summer.
17.43 million see German World Cup from
According to ARD, an average of 17.43 million people watched the live broadcast of the end of the World Cup on Thursday evening despite the 4-2 victory.
According to the first, this results in a market share of 53.7 percent.
Viewers on the ARD and Telekom websites, which do not publish any figures, are not included.
The men could not break the previous ratings record of the year.
The 17.897 million people who saw the 1:2 defeat of the DFB selection in the women's European Championship against England on ARD remain top values.
Thursday's Costa Rica game drew even more people than the 1-1 draw with Spain last Sunday, when 17.053 million were tallyed and the market share stood at 49.3 percent.
Only 9.23 million viewers (market share: 59.7 percent) watched the first German World Cup preliminary round match against Japan (1:2) live on ARD.
These values are well below the figures for the previous World Cup.
ARD and ZDF had reached an average of more than 25 million people at the tournament in Russia four years ago in the three group games of the German team.