If overshadowed by a far larger world sport event, the British Open still more than held its own in viewership.
Sunday’s final round of the British Open averaged 4.3 million viewers across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (2.0 rating, 3.49M viewers) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics, up 6% from Scottie Scheffler’s win last year (4.1M), an increase that is within the margin that could be explained by Nielsen’s methodological changes of the past year.
Ryan Fox’s win, which peaked with 6.1 million in the 1:15 PM ET quarter-hour, officially ranks as the most-watched final round of the tournament since Cameron Smith won in 2022 (4.73M).
The Open took place on the day of the FIFA World Cup Final, which averaged a combined 66.4 million across FOX, Telemundo and Peacock. Final round coverage overlapped with soccer pre-match coverage, which on FOX averaged 2.87 million.
All four major championships this year posted increases in final round viewership, though three of the four were by single-digit percentages — i.e., within the margin that could be explained by methodology.
Third round action on Saturday averaged 3.7 million, up 16% from last year (3.2M) and the most-watched third round since 2018, when Tiger Woods was in contention and briefly took the lead (3.77M).
On USA Network, British Open coverage averaged 873,000 viewers over the full four days of play — up 17% from last year and the network’s highest average since 2022. (Note that on an apples-to-apples basis, viewership increased 2% compared to last year’s “Big Data + Panel” figures.) The cable channel topped out at 1.2 million for ten-plus hours of second round coverage last Friday.
Note that USA Network, which is no longer part of the NBCUniversal family and does not have a dedicated streaming service, reported Nielsen-only figures rather than the combined Nielsen + Adobe Analytics numbers that NBCU issues for its properties.
The increases for the British Open are in keeping with a broader upward trend for golf, or at least PGA Tour-affiliated events, this season. NBC was averaging 3.2 million for its golf telecasts this season, up 10% from last year, and CBS was averaging 3.53 million — up 14% and its highest average since 2012.
