Formula 1 viewership held steady in 2024, finishing just shy of the all-time high set two years ago.
The 2024 Formula 1 season averaged 1.11 million viewers on the ESPN family of networks, almost exactly even with last year. (This year’s average was 1.106 million and last year’s was 1.107 million.) This year’s average is tied as the second-highest on record for F1 in the United States, trailing only 2022 (1.21M).
The past four Formula 1 seasons rank as the four most-watched, each comfortably topping the previous high of 748,000 in 1995. (Even with the impact of Nielsen out-of-home viewing — which was first tracked in 2020 — it is likely these seasons would still rank as the most-watched.)
Sunday’s season finale from Abu Dhabi averaged 1.0 million on ESPN, surpassing 2021 (998K) as the most-watched edition of the race. Keep in mind the race previously aired on ESPN2.
Lando Norris’ win, which peaked with 1.1 million in the 9:15 AM ET quarter-hour, was the seventh race to hit a new high this season — joining a list that includes Qatar, Italy, Hungary, Britain, Spain, Canada, Monaco and Miami. The Miami race, which had a direct lead-in from an NBA playoff Game 7, was the most-watched F1 race ever on U.S. television.
Next season is the last of the current F1 media rights deal with ESPN, which acquired rights in 2018 and previously renewed its package in 2022. Viewership has doubled from the first year on ESPN in 2018 (554K) after previously rising 47 percent during NBC Sports’ five-year tenure from 2013-17.
