Sports Ratings Tracker

NASCAR last week resumed reporting the official Nielsen “Big Data + Panel” ratings and viewership figures for its races, a move that coincides with Nielsen having rolled out a modified version of the methodology at the end of last month. The first race following that decision, Darlington over Labor Day weekend, averaged a 1.0 rating and 1.98 million viewers on USA Network — up 6% and 5% respectively from last year (1.0, 1.9M).

For each of the preceding 14 races, NASCAR publicized its viewership using the old “panel-only” Nielsen methodology, even as “Big Data + Panel” remained the official currency. Viewership was lower under “Big Data” for each of the nine races that aired on linear television, and higher for the five races that aired on streaming service Amazon Prime Video.

NASCAR Cup Series racing from Daytona averaged a 1.7 rating and 3.12 million viewers on NBC a week ago Saturday, per the “Big Data + Panel” methodology that is the official Nielsen currency, and a 1.8 and 3.51 million under the old “panel-only” metric NASCAR now publicizes for its races.

On an official basis — so comparing “Big Data + Panel” this year to “panel only” the prior year, in keeping with Nielsen policy — the race declined a tick in ratings and 5% in viewership from last year (1.8, 3.30M). On a panel-to-panel basis, ratings were flat and viewership increased 6%.

The 11% gap between “Big Data” and panel-only is the widest for a Cup Series race since NASCAR moved away from using the new methodology in May.

Last week’s U.S. Open mixed doubles semifinals and final averaged 492,000 viewers, up 43% from last year, which was the first year of the revamped mixed doubles tournament. That figure includes 552,000 for the final.

The previous day’s mixed doubles coverage averaged 363,000, peaking at 502,000 during the 5 PM ET quarter-hour that included the pairing of Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz.

NASCAR Cup Series racing from New Hampshire averaged a 0.9 rating and 1.69 million viewers on USA Network a week ago Sunday, per the Nielsen “Big Data + Panel” methodology that is the official currency, and a 1.0 and 1.79 million per the prior panel-only metric that NASCAR now reports for its races — both up from last year, when the race averaged a 0.7 and 1.29 million opposite NFL games.

Since NASCAR began publicizing panel-only viewership instead of “Big Data + Panel” in May, all eight races on linear television have averaged fewer viewers under “Big Data” than under panel-only.

By comparison, the five streaming-exclusive races on Prime Video all fared better under “Big Data” than panel-only.

Note that the official Nielsen numbers include nearly a full hour of rain delay coverage.

Final round coverage of the PGA Tour BMW Championship averaged a 2.2 rating and 3.85 million viewers on CBS a week ago Sunday, marking the largest audience for the tournament since the inaugural edition in 2007, won by Tiger Woods.

Wyndham Clark’s win, which averaged 5.17 million in the final hour and peaked with 5.50 million, increased about 10% from last year’s final round on NBC (3.5M per Nielsen and Adobe Analytics).

Third round action averaged a 1.4 and 2.43 million, bringing the two-day average to 3.24 million — also the highest since 2007.

FOX topped Week 2 of the NFL preseason with a 2.6 rating and 4.90 million viewers for a Sunday night Seahawks-Titans game August 23, down from the network’s lone preseason game last year, a higher-profile pairing of the Bears and Bills in the same Sunday night window (5.1M).

ESPN averaged a 1.8 rating and 3.40 million viewers for its lone preseason game, Raiders-Texans on August 20, with those figures rising to 2.0 and 3.65 million including local over-the-air simulcasts in the home markets. ESPN last year averaged 2.90 million for Bengals-Commanders, not including the OTA simulcasts.

On NFL Network, Cowboys-Seahawks topped the Week 2 slate with a 1.1 and 2.32 million on August 22, preceded by Rams-Chiefs at a 1.0 and 2.03 million and Browns-Bears at a 0.8 and 1.61 million. The network drew a 0.9 and 1.68 million for Jets-Steelers the previous night , followed by a 0.7 and 1.49 million for Packers-Broncos.

The Brewers-Braves MLB Little League Classic averaged 2.02 million viewers on ESPN a week ago Sunday, marking the most-watched MLB telecast on the ESPN networks this season. Perhaps not coincidentally, it was also the only Sunday night game on ESPN this season, after the network gave up its “Sunday Night Baseball” package in the offseason.

Brewers-Braves finished behind the previous week’s Mariners-Astros “Sunday Night Baseball” game on NBC, which drew 2.4 million across a Nielsen-estimated linear audience (2.24M) and Adobe Analytics.

With ESPN getting the primetime window, NBC averaged 1.7 million for its Giants-Red Sox matinee (0.9 rating, 1.53M viewers per Nielsen, plus Adobe Analytics) — tied with Rangers-Red Sox earlier this season as the network’s least-watched window of the season.

The previous night, FOX averaged a 1.5 and 3.08 million for its usual regional window, delivering the top MLB audience of the week for a second-straight weekend.

Thursday’s Fever-Wings WNBA regular season game averaged 1.07 million viewers on Prime Video, marking the streamer’s largest WNBA audience. (Prime carried WNBA games prior to this season, but those were not Nielsen-rated.)

The previous high for Prime came two weeks earlier, when the Aces’ buzzer-beating win over the Fever averaged 948,000.

Prime had another Fever game on Saturday against the Liberty, figures for which will not be available until Tuesday at the earliest.

Last weekend’s IndyCar Series race from Toronto averaged a 0.52 rating and 913,000 viewers on FOX, up 24% from last year (734K), and also up sharply from the previous week’s race at Portland (677K).

IndyCar Series racing is averaging 1.73 million viewers this season, up 16% from last year (1.49M), outside the range one would generally attribute to Nielsen’s shift to “Big Data + Panel” methodology.

The Little League baseball regionals averaged 632,000 across ESPN and ESPN2, up 22% from last year. (Note that not all games are carried on Nielsen-rated platforms.) The top game was Darien, Conn., vs. Bayonne, N.J. on August 14 with a 0.6 rating and 1.17 million viewers on ESPN — the third-largest audience for the baseball regionals.

The lead-out game — Kapa’a, Hawaii, vs. Bonita, Ca. — followed with a 0.54 and 1.02 million.

(As with all superlatives, note that Nielsen did not begin tracking out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020 and shifted last fall to a new methodology that integrates “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes with its traditional panel.)

Last Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Richmond averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.47 million viewers on USA Network, per the Nielsen “Big Data + Panel” methodology that is the official currency, and a 0.8 and 1.52 million per the prior panel-only methodology NASCAR is reporting for its races — both up from last year’s race at the track (1.385M).

Since NASCAR began publicizing panel-only viewership instead of “Big Data + Panel” in May, all seven races on linear television have averaged fewer viewers under “Big Data” than under panel-only.

Rams-Chiefs topped the first full week of the NFL preseason with a 1.2 rating and 2.38 million viewers on NFL Network last Saturday afternoon — up from Vikings-Texans last year (2.1M).

Packers-Steelers placed second with a 1.1 and 2.28 million on NFL Network two nights earlier, up from Colts-Ravens last year (1.89M). The Steelers’ win easily surpassed the competing MLB “Field of Dreams” game from Dyersville, Iowa, on Netflix the same night (0.7, 1.66M).

NFL Network also averaged a 1.1 and 2.23 million for Cowboys-Seahawks following Rams-Chiefs last Saturday night — up from Jets-Packers last year (1.73M) — and a 0.9 and 1.65 million for Browns-Bears in the first game of its Saturday tripleheader, down from the year-ago Giants-Bills (1.81M).