With viewership up big even before Nielsen’s “Big Data” became the official currency this month, it should be no surprise that the US Open finished at a multi-year high.
The US Open tennis tournament averaged 1.1 million viewers across the ESPN networks, up 39% from last year and the highest average since Serena Williams last played the event three years ago (1.2M). Keep in mind that between Nielsen’s new “Big Data + Panel” methodology and its February expansion of out of-home viewing, this year’s figures have a built-in advantage over past years.
Last Sunday’s Carlos Alcaraz-Jannik Sinner men’s final averaged 3.3 million viewers on ABC, with the full telecast average of 3.0 million marking an 82% increase over last year’s pairing of Sinner and Taylor Fritz. Again keeping in mind the caveats regarding Nielsen methodological changes, that is the largest audience for the men’s final since 2015.
The US Open was the third-straight Alcaraz-Sinner men’s final and the most-watched of those three. Viewership narrowly outpaced the Wimbledon final between the same two players, which averaged 3.2 million for the match portion and 2.9 million for the full telecast window on ESPN. The pair’s French Open final in May averaged 1.8 million over the full telecast window on TNT Sports.
As for the women’s final, Aryna Sabalenka’s win over Amanda Anisimova averaged 2.4 million — up 50% from Sabalenka-Jessica Pegula last year. Viewership also increased 37 percent for the men’s semifinals (1.8M), 62 percent for the women’s semifinals (1.8M), 55% for the quarterfinals (1.4M) and 51% for the round of 16 (1.5M).
Some of the gains predate the rollout of Nielsen’s “Big Data + Panel” standard on September 1. Viewership was already up 29% as of August 28, and that was on a panel-only basis.
In addition, the trajectory for Grand Slam tennis this season has broadly been upward. Wimbledon was the most-watched since 2019, albeit with a modest six percent increase. The French Open scored a 25 percent increase in its first year on TNT Sports, though some of that can be attributed to most of last year’s coverage airing on the lesser-watched Tennis Channel.
Figures for the Australian Open were not available, usually an indication that viewership was down. The Australian Open predated both “Big Data” and Nielsen’s expansion of out-of-home viewing.
