Halftime: The 50 Most-Watched Sporting Events of 2014 (So Far)

Select Sporting Events Outside of the Top 50

Click here for the list of the top 50 events

Sport	Event	Net	Rtg.	Vwrs.
World Cup	Argentina/Netherlands Semifinal	ESPN, UNI	N/A	12.20M
CBB	Kentucky/Wichita St. Third round	CBS	7.5	12.09M
World Cup	Brazil/Colombia Quarterfinals	ESPN, UNI	N/A	11.84M
CBB	UConn/Florida Final Four	TBS, TNT, TruTV	6.9	11.65M
CBB	UNC/Iowa St. Third round	CBS	7.0	11.62M
CFB	Clemson/Ohio St. Orange Bowl	ESPN	6.7	11.40M
NFL	Pro Bowl	NBC	6.6	11.38M
MLB	MLB All-Star Game	FOX	7.0	11.34M
CFB	UCF/Baylor Fiesta Bowl	ESPN	6.6	11.24M
World Cup	Brazil/Mexico Group stage	ESPN, UNI	N/A	11.00M
Golf	The Masters Final round	CBS	6.8	10.97M
World Cup	Netherlands/Costa Rica Quarterfinal	ESPN, UNI	N/A	10.92M
World Cup	Costa Rica/Greece Round of 16	ESPN, UNI	N/A	10.78M
World Cup	Brazil/Chile Round of 16	ABC, UNI	N/A	10.71M
CBB	Kentucky/Louisville Sweet Sixteen	CBS	5.9	10.09M
CBB	Wisconsin/Arizona Elite Eight	TBS	5.8	9.97M
CBS	UConn/Michigan St. Elite Eight	CBS	6.1	9.80M
Horse	Preakness Stakes	NBC	6.0	9.60M
CFB	So. Carolina/Wisconsin Capital One Bowl	ABC	5.6	9.59M
NASCAR	Daytona 500	FOX	5.6	9.30M
NASCAR	Profit on CNBC 500 Phoenix	FOX	5.3	8.80M
CBB	Tennessee/Michigan Sweet Sixteen	CBS	5.0	8.32M
NBA	Spurs/Thunder West Finals Game 6	TNT	4.9	8.15M
NBA	Heat/Pacers East Finals Game 1	ABC	4.9	7.82M
NBA	NBA All-Star Game	TNT	4.3	7.51M
CBB	Dayton/Florida Elite Eight	TBS	4.3	7.20M
NHL	Rangers/Kings Stanley Cup Final Game 2	NBC	3.7	6.41M
IndyCar	Indianapolis 500	ABC	3.9	6.20M
Golf	The Masters Third round	CBS	3.9	5.85M
NBA	NBA All-Star Sat. Night	TNT	3.1	5.69M
MLB	Home Run Derby	ESPN	3.4	5.40M
Oly.	Canada/United States Women’s hockey final	NBC	N/A	4.90M
Soccer	United States/Mexico Friendly	ESPN, UMás	N/A	4.90M
Golf	U.S. Open Final round	NBC	3.0	4.60M
WCBB	UConn/Notre Dame Final Four	ESPN	2.8	4.27M
NHL	Kings/Blackhawks West Final Game 7	NBCSN	2.3	4.14M
Oly.	United States/Russia Men’s hockey pool play	NBCSN	2.6	4.10M
Oly.	Canada/United States Men’s hockey semifinal	NBCSN	2.7	3.90M
Oly.	Canada/Sweden Men’s hockey final	NBC	2.5	3.61M
NASCAR	Sprint Unlimited FS1 record-high	FS1	2.0	3.53M
NBA	NBA Draft	ESPN	2.3	3.45M
UEFA	Real Madrid/Atletico Madrid Champions League final	FOX, Fox Dep.	N/A	3.10M
MLB	Rangers/Angels Season-high	ESPN	1.8	2.89M
Tennis	Djokovic/Federer Wimbledon men’s final	ESPN	1.9	2.82M
Special	Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest Post-World Cup encore	ESPN2	1.6	2.78M
NASCAR	Drive4COPD 300 Nationwide Series	ESPN	1.8	2.74M
CWS	Vanderbilt/Virginia CWS final Game 3	ESPN	1.6	2.39M
Golf	U.S. Women’s Open Final round	NBC	1.4	2.00M
Tennis	Kvitova/Bouchard Wimbledon women’s final	ESPN	0.9	1.33M

(Ratings/viewership from various sources, including ESPN, Univision, NBC Sports, Sports Business Daily, Awful Announcing)

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Tags: List of Most-Watched Sporting Events

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Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 10

John Smith says:

12 years ago

Yes, the chase is a little artificial perhaps. But if you didn’t find the ’11 Chase exciting, keeping in mind that it was only 3 years ago, you either don’t like racing or you don’t like Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards.

And as for the lucky dog, they just need to tweak it so that you get your lap back if your the first car a lap down on the track *behind the leader* (as that’s what they used to do ‘back in the day’ anyway…i.e. slow down…and you were a d*ck if you didn’t).

The empty seats…well…that’s a marketing issue. But just make sure you know it peaked in the 2000s, not the 90s, 80s, 70s, etc. It hasn’t changed *that* much since the 48 started stringing together championships.

Then again, motor sports may be played. F1’s having the same problem. Hell, spectator sports in general (except NFL, who can still charge what they want) are all struggling. Could be changing tastes, could be the fact that you can sit on your butt at home for free and get better coverage of sports in sparkling HD. And replays. And live pause.
- Brad Lawrence says:
  
  12 years ago
  
  Sorry John, I didn’t like the ’11 chase. I didn’t like any of the chases, and I especially hate this new format. I miss the days when all the races mattered the same. The title didn’t always come down to the final race or two, but so what. The most deserving team won the title. The team that did it all year, and all kinds of tracks.
Mikey1109 says:

12 years ago

I still say a big part of the problem is the rick hendrick/jimmy johnson show. Why bother watching when you know who is more than likely to win. It has been the same old lousy story 6 of the last 8 years.
- sbx2424 says:
  
  12 years ago
  
  I don’t attribute that to Rick Hendrick and Jimmy Johnson, I attributed it to NASCAR, they’re the ones came up with this ludicrous Chase. You really don’t even need to run 36 races. All you have to do is run the Chase… call it a season! The first 26 races you don’t even need to watch you just need to see if your guys going to make it in the top 12 or 20 or 30. I don’t know what they’ve expanded it to now!
  - Mikey1109 says:
    
    12 years ago
    
    I don’t think you can blame all of the championships on the chase format. Even before the chase started in 2004 hendrick won 5 of 9 championships (4 Gordon and one T Labonte) from 1995 to 2003. Granted that’s not as good as 6 out of 8 but they still won their share of championships.
  - Brad Lawrence says:
    
    12 years ago
    
    Agreed. The chase stinks and has robbed a lot of drama out of the season.
pamotorman says:

12 years ago

the reason no NASCAR races are here is because you can go out and sit by any interstate highway and see what you see in NASCAR. a parade of cars just following the leader. there is most likely more passing on the interstate. making all cars equal does not make for exciting racing.
- John Smith says:
  
  12 years ago
  
  Yes, and having 3 cars on the lead lap at the end of a race is so much more exciting. Hilarious how Dale Sr fans whine about the good ole days being gone since the good ole boys no longer win.
  - sbx2424 says:
    
    12 years ago
    
    It’s not possible to have only three cars on the lead lap anymore, they have that lucky dog, which every time they throw caution, people get their laps back. But the good old boys aren’t the only ones whining, just look at all the empty seats, but if those are the good old boys were showing up definitely damaging the sport.
  - pamotorman says:
    
    12 years ago
    
    my first race was darlington 1955 when we drove 2 55 chevys there to race and we did this till 1957 so I have been around a long time. NASCAR wants every car to have a chance to win so they keep coming back. it has kept the cars coming back but not the fans. racing is exciting when like dale sr. came from 16 th place in a couple of laps to win. racing is passing 2 or 3 cars at a time going into a turn not waiting till a driver to make a mistake.so you can pass. racing should be ingenuity in action and NASCAR allows no ingenuity.