The Caitlin Clark effect continues to deliver as yet another WNBA game surpassed the million viewer mark. Plus: more gains for Euro 2024; and weekend numbers for auto racing, baseball, golf and more.
Fever-Aces latest WNBA game to top million mark
Tuesday’s Fever-Aces WNBA regular season game averaged 1.45 million viewers on ESPN, marking the 11th game this season to surpass the million viewer mark — the most in any WNBA season since 2002. Entering this season, no WNBA game had averaged a seven-figure audience since 2008.
The Aces’ win, which peaked with 1.71 million in the 10 PM ET quarter-hour, ranks eighth for the season in viewership. Caitlin Clark and the Fever have played in the top eight and ten of the top 11 WNBA games this season.
For the night, Fever-Aces was cable’s top program in all the key adult and male demographics.
Euro 2024 viewership continues to rise
Monday’s Portugal-Slovenia Euro 2024 round of 16 match averaged 2.19 million viewers on FOX, up 14% from France-Switzerland on ESPN in 2021 (1.92M). Portugal’s win peaked with 3.07 million in the 5:30 PM ET quarter-hour. Miami-Ft. Lauderdale was the top market with a 3.0 rating and 14 share, followed by San Diego (2.4/16) and Providence, R.I. (2.3/9).
Earlier in the day, France-Belgium averaged 1.67 million — up 47% from Croatia-Spain in ’21 (1.14M). Viewership peaked at 2.28 million in the 1:30 PM quarter-hour.
The full Round of 16 was averaging 2.19 million through Monday, up 28% from the same point in ’21 (1.71M). The full tournament is averaging 1.24 million on the Fox networks, up 31% from ’21, with the caveat that this year’s average excludes five matches that were sublicensed to the streaming service Fubo.
NASCAR up slightly at Nashville despite weather; F1 Austria nears high
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Nashville averaged 3.24 million viewers on NBC (3.3 million including additional streaming data measured by Adobe Analytics), up slightly from last year (3.21M). The race experienced weather delays and eventually concluded on USA Network.
Earlier in the day, the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix averaged 1.08 million on ESPN — trailing only last year’s 1.09 million as the highest for the race. Viewership peaked at 1.34 million in the 10:15 AM quarter-hour.
Plus: MLB, PGA Tour, UFC
— Regional Major League Baseball action on FOX averaged 2.47 million viewers Saturday night, up from 1.76 million on the same weekend last year. ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball (Rangers-Orioles) drew 1.22 million, down from a combined 1.42 million for Giants-Dodgers on ESPN and ESPN2 last year. For the second-straight week, Sunday Night Baseball trailed WNBA action on ESPN earlier in the afternoon (with the obvious caveat that both WNBA games featured Caitlin Clark).
— Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Rocket Mortgage Classic averaged 2.47 million viewers on CBS Sunday, up 1% from last year’s 2.45 million. Third round action drew 1.40 million, up a third from last year’s 1.06 million.
— UFC 203 prelims averaged 1.06 million viewers on ESPN Saturday night, surpassing the two previous PPV prelims to rank as the most-watched since UFC 300 in April (1.86M).
