Halftime: The 50 Most-Viewed Sporting Events of 2012 (So Far)

With the MLB All-Star Game marking the unofficial halfway point of the sports calendar, here is a look at the fifty most-viewed sporting events of the year thus far.

As is typical, the NFL leads the list.The twelve most-viewed sporting events of the year were all NFL games, with the Super Bowl topping the list with a U.S. television record 111.346 million viewers.

Even two regular season games on New Year’s Day drew more viewers than any non-NFL event on the list.

Among the non-NFL programs, January’s Alabama/LSU BCS National Championship Game ranks thirteenth on the list, with an audience of 24.214 million viewers on ESPN.

Not far behind, the Kentucky/Kansas NCAA Tournament title game ranks fifteenth (20.869M), and the clinching game of the Heat/Thunder NBA Finals ranks seventeenth (18.416M).

Further down the list, the race portion of the Kentucky Derby ranks 24th (14.8M), the twice-postponed Daytona 500 ranks 27th (13.669M), and the final round of The Masters ranks 28th (13.487M).

50 Most-Viewed Sporting Events of 2012
Through Tuesday
* CBS/Turner Sports generally did not provide combined ratings and viewership for NCAA Tournament telecast windows this year. As a result, individual NCAA Tournament telecasts are listed.

#	Date	League	Event	Net	Rating	Viewers (000)
1	Sun., 2/5/12	NFL	Super Bowl: Giants/Patriots	NBC	47.0	111,346
2	Sun., 1/22/12	NFL	NFC Champ.: Giants/49ers	FOX	30.6	57,635
3	Sun., 1/22/12	NFL	AFC Champ.: Ravens/Patriots	CBS	27.4	48,676
4	Sun., 1/15/12	NFL	NFC Divisional: Giants/Packers	FOX	25.3	45,120
5	Sun., 1/8/12	NFL	AFC Wild Card: Steelers/Broncos	CBS	24.0	42,371
6	Sat., 1/14/12	NFL	NFC Divisional: Saints/49ers	FOX	20.5	35,601
7	Sat., 1/14/12	NFL	AFC Divisional: Broncos/Patriots	CBS	18.5	34,161
8	Sat., 1/7/12	NFL	NFC Wild Card: Lions/Saints	NBC	18.2	31,780
9	Sun., 1/15/12	NFL	AFC Divisional: Texans/Ravens	CBS	19.0	30,963
10	Sun., 1/8/12	NFL	NFC Wild Card: Falcons/Giants	FOX	17.3	27,735
11	Sun., 1/1/12	NFL	Reg. Season: Cowboys/Giants	NBC	15.7	27,624
12	Sun., 1/1/12	NFL	Reg. Season: Regional	CBS	15.1	27,004
13	Mon., 1/9/12	NCAAF	BCS Champ.: Alabama/LSU	ESPN	14.0	24,214
14	Sat., 1/7/12	NFL	AFC Wild Card: Bengals/Texans	NBC	13.5	21,893
15	Mon., 4/3/12	NCAAB	Final Four: Kentucky/Kansas	CBS	12.3	20,869
16	Sun., 1/1/12	NFL	Reg. Season: Regional	FOX	11.6	19,596
17	Thu., 6/21/12	NBA	Finals: Thunder/Heat Game 5	ABC	10.9	18,416
18	Mon., 1/2/12	NCAAF	Rose Bowl: Oregon/Wisconsin	ESPN	10.2	17,558
19	Tue., 6/19/12	NBA	Finals: Thunder/Heat Game 4	ABC	10.5	17,455
20	Thu., 6/14/12	NBA	Finals: Heat/Thunder Game 2	ABC	10.4	16,670
21	Sat., 3/31/12	NCAAB	Final Four: Kansas/Ohio State	CBS	9.6	16,603
22	Tue., 6/12/12	NBA	Finals: Heat/Thunder Game 1	ABC	9.9	16,195
23	Sun., 6/17/12	NBA	Finals Thunder/Heat Game 3	ABC	8.8	15,549
24	Sat., 5/5/12	Horse	Kentucky Derby (race portion)	NBC	9.0	14,800
25	Sat., 3/31/12	NCAAB	Final Four: Kentucky/Louisville	CBS	8.4	13,908
26	Mon., 1/2/12	NCAAF	Fiesta Bowl: Okla. St./Stanford	ESPN	8.4	13,684
27	Mon., 2/27/12	NASCAR	Sprint Cup: Daytona 500	FOX	8.0	13,669
28	Sun., 4/8/12	Golf (M)	The Masters, final round	CBS	8.0	13,487
29	Sat., 6/9/12	NBA	ECF: Celtics/Heat Game 7	ESPN	7.7	13,346
30	Sun., 1/1/12	NFL	Reg. Season: Regional	CBS	8.1	13,331
31	Sun., 1/29/12	NFL	Pro Bowl	NBC	7.3	12,498
32	Sun., 3/25/12	NCAAB	Elite Eight: Kansas/UNC	CBS	7.1	11,683
T33	Thu., 6/7/12	NBA	ECF: Heat/Celtics Game 6	ESPN	6.8	11,068
T33	Sun., 6/3/12	NBA	ECF: Heat/Celtics Game 4	ESPN	6.8	11,068
35	Sat., 3/24/12	NCAAB	Elite Eight: Ohio State/Syracuse	CBS	6.7	10,949
36	Tue., 7/10/12	MLB	MLB All-Star Game	FOX	6.8	10,900
37	Tue., 6/5/12	NBA	ECF: Celtics/Heat Game 5	ESPN	6.3	10,251
38	Sun., 7/1/12	Olympics	U.S. Olympic Trials (Gymnastics)	NBC	5.9	10,021
39	Sun., 6/17/12	Golf (M)	U.S. Open, Final Round	NBC	6.0	9,633
40	Tue., 1/3/12	NCAAF	Sugar Bowl: Michigan/Va. Tech	ESPN	6.1	9,572
41	Wed., 6/6/12	NBA	WCF: Spurs/Thunder Game 6	TNT	6.0	9,498
42	Sun., 3/4/12	NASCAR	Sprint Cup: Subway Fresh Fit 500 (Phoenix)	FOX	5.6	9,230
43	Mon., 5/28/12	NBA	ECF: Celtics/Heat Game 1	ESPN	5.6	8,989
44	Wed., 5/30/12	NBA	ECF: Celtics/Heat Game 2	ESPN	5.7	8,809
45	Sun., 3/18/12	NCAAB	Third Round: UNC/Creighton	CBS	5.7	8,799
46	Fri., 3/23/12	NCAAB	Sweet Sixteen: Kentucky/Indiana	CBS	5.2	8,702
47	Sun., 3/11/12	NASCAR	Sprint Cup: Kobalt Tools 500 (Las Vegas)	FOX	5.2	8,528
48	Mon., 6/4/12	NBA	WCF: Thunder/Spurs Game 5	TNT	5.5	8,507
49	Fri., 1/6/12	NCAAF	Cotton Bowl: Arkansas/Kansas St.	FOX	5.0	8,363
50	Sun., 5/6/12	NASCAR	Sprint Cup: Aaron’s 499 (Talladega)	FOX	5.1	8,348

(Numbers from various sources, including Sports Business Daily, Son of the Bronx, ESPN and Turner Sports)

Tags: List of Most-Watched Sporting Events

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Comments 10

PaulStein says:

14 years ago

this is only in America right?
- Paulsen says:
  
  14 years ago
  
  Correct, these are based on U.S. Nielsen ratings.
Malcolmkass says:

14 years ago

Wow, as much as people complained about the BCS championship, still outdrew the NBA finals?
- Paulsen says:
  
  14 years ago
  
  That’s no surprise. The BCS title game is almost always the most-viewed non-NFL sporting event in a given year.
Ben Schleuss says:

14 years ago

Ah, no Soccer? The Champions League final has drawn 200-300 million people since 2009? So it should be #1 and my guess is there would be a number of other soccer games on here as well, right?

Or maybe some qualifiers need to be added???
JakeFrankie says:

14 years ago

NFL is once a week, Not saying it’s not America’s sport. But MLB has 162 Games (plus playoffs), NBA has 82 games (Plus playoffs). There’s a lot of games coming at you all the time. Take into account the local channels (Which MLB does great in), There’s plenty of people watching NBA games on there computer, as NBA League Pass you can watch on your iphone now a days.

Anybody who thinks EVERYONE who watches the Superbowl because they “love the NFL” is naive. There’s nothing to watch on TV that night all re-runs, There’s plenty of Superbowl parties before to go too. I highly doubt everyone who watches Superbowl is a fan of the NFL or Sports. Commericals are a big part of the Superbowl that’s a fact. NFL games are extremely long these days, NFL too me is boring but too each it’s own I guess.

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, There’s no debating that. But people in Europe people live and die by there Soccer teams. People go crazy for there teams, the love and passion of European Football is second to none. (South America loves there soccer too as does much of the world).

NBA is extremely popular worldwide, MLB has countries that are in love with Baseball. NFL is a American sport that’s all it will ever be, Nobody outside of the states gives a crap about it. That’s why Basketball and Hockey are played in the Olympics. Baseball has the World Baseball Classic.
Bobbyr1969 says:

14 years ago

@ea14579b4b786f94fdb459f1b7626c27:disqus I think it’s absolutely stupid to suggest people only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. That’s an ignorant myth. No one watches four hours of TV for commercials. There is no data to back up your speculation.
You may not like it but the reality is that the sport is enormously popular in this country. And the ratings are only an average. The Superbowl generally peaks with about 160-170 million viewers. The World Series and NBA finals have between 50 to 80 million people who watch some part of those events (again the ratings are an average not a total). Further, there are 300 channels to chose from when it comes to TV viewership these days.

National TV ratings for the NBA and MLB are also deceiving because, on any given night there are millions across the country who are watching their local teams play on local channels. National TV ratings are depressed because of this. Remember NBA, MLB, and NHL all suffer from a saturation of games. The national rating is a subset of fans not all fans.

As to your point that sports are more popular in europe, I’d like to see you back that up. Here are some facts: the NFL has the highest average attendance of any pro sports league in the world. The SEC and Big Ten football have the highest average attendance in the world of any sport, pro or amateur. Major League Baseball draws 73 million total fans to its ballparks each year averaging more than 30,000 fans per game, that is the highest total attendance of any sports league on earth.
evo m. says:

14 years ago

@ea14579b4b786f94fdb459f1b7626c27:disqus It’s an over simplification to say Europeans care more about sports than Americans based solely on TV ratings. Ratings in the US and the UK are wildly different. Top non-sports shows in the UK generally get about 13M viewers, or 21% of the population. Top non-sports shows in the US get about 20M viewers, or about 7% of the population. Would you say that the average Brit cares more about dancing and singing competitions than their American counterpart? The fact is there are more people with satellite/cable in the US than in the UK, so viewing figures are more diffused. There are just way more options.
Also, I get the impression sports in the US are much more regionalized, especially basketball and baseball. For example, there are probably a lot of Lakers or Celtics fans that wouldn’t be very interested in a Heat/Thunder Finals.
sam says:

14 years ago

Football is maybe the only somewhat popular sport in the US and i’m not even sure about that because a lot of people watch the SuperBowl for the show and commercials.

Basketball and Baseball are niche sports. They are lucky when they get 20 million viewers out of 315 million americans. That’s less than 7%. Meaning 93% of americans don’t care about these 2 sports. Regular season games of MLB and NBA average 2 to 3 million viewers. That’s less than 1% of Americans.

It’s really low compared to the ratings major sports get in Europe. The average English or French guy care much more about soccer, rugby or formula 1 than the average Amercian guy cares about MLB, NBA or even NFL.
Bobbyr1969 says:

14 years ago

Since NFL is so dominant in TV ratings, I’d like to know what this list would look like if you excluded NFL. I mean, when your regular season games are blowing away championships from the other sports, I think we can just note that you kick @$$ and then figure where everyone else stands.