Rory McIlroy’s flair for the dramatic again lifted ratings and viewership for the final round of the Masters.
Sunday’s final round of the Masters, won by McIlroy for a second-straight year, averaged a 7.0 rating and just shy of 14 million viewers on CBS — marking the highest rated final round of the Masters since Patrick Reed’s win in 2018 (7.9) and the most-watched since Jordan Spieth won in 2015 (14.0M).
Ratings increased 13% and viewership 8% from McIlroy’s memorable win last year (6.2, 12.99M). Notably, ratings also surpassed Tiger Woods’ 2019 win (6.9) — which despite airing in an early morning timeslot to avoid inclement weather had nonetheless outrated every subsequent year.
McIlroy’s repeat victory peaked with 20.05 million viewers in the 6:45 PM ET quarter-hour, up 1% from last year’s peak (19.90M) and the highest for the Masters since 2013. The full final hour averaged 19.3 million.
Note that Nielsen did not begin including out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020, only began doing so in 100 percent of markets a year ago, and is mere months into a new methodology that combines its traditional panel with “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes. Those changes generally skew comparisons to past years.
But it is not clear just how much the usual methodological caveats apply, as the household rating — which by definition does not include viewing done outside the home — was up by more than the viewership and hit an eight-year high.
Ratings, viewership, for final round of the Masters
Third round action on Saturday averaged a 4.3 and 8.11 million viewers (+14%), marking the largest third round audience for the Masters since the year Tiger Woods won in 2019.
The good times extended to ESPN, which averaged 3.1 million viewers for its coverage of the opening two rounds — up 16% from last year and the highest since 2022. That includes 2.7 million for the opening round last Thursday (+19%) and 3.5 million for the second round last Friday (+14%).
The Par-3 Contest last Wednesday had a much sharper increase, rising 52% to 956,000 — the highest since 2015.
