From Sports Media Watch, a one-stop page for sports ratings news.
Last weekend’s final round of the PGA TOUR 3M Open from Minneapolis averaged a 2.1 rating and 3.71 million viewers on CBS, marking the largest audience on record for the event (debuted in 2019).
21-year-old Jackson Koivun’s win, which peaked with 4.87 million viewers, increased 100% from last year (1.85M).
The telecast was the most-watched sporting event of the weekend, ahead of the previous night’s WNBA All-Star Game (3.16M) and the Yankees-Phillies “Sunday Night Baseball” game on NBC later in the evening (3.15M).
Third round action averaged a 1.2 and 2.04 million — itself higher than any final round of the tournament since 2020.
Tuesday’s Fever-Storm WNBA regular season game averaged 1.4 million viewers on ESPN, trailing only Fever-Aces earlier in the month (1.55M) as the most-watched WNBA game on cable or streaming this season.
It may be easy to overlook given the historic juggernaut in Los Angeles, but the New York Yankees have not ceded their position as the biggest TV draw in baseball.
Last weekend's Yankees-Phillies "Sunday Night Baseball" game on NBC averaged 3.15 million viewers across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (1.7 rating, 2.91M viewers) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics -- up 90% from Mets-Giants on ESPN and ESPN2 last year (1.66M) and the fifth-largest audience of the MLB season.
NASCAR viewership continues to take a "Big Data" hit on linear TV, with the TNT portion of the season down slightly under the new methodology -- and up slightly under the old.
The five NASCAR Cup Series races on TNT Sports averaged 2.0 million viewers per the Nielsen "Big Data + Panel" data that is the official currency, down slightly from a year ago, but 2.1 million per the prior 'panel-only' methodology that NASCAR is now publicizing for its races -- up 4%.
The WNBA delivered one of its five largest audiences on record for Saturday's All-Star Game.
Saturday's WNBA All-Star Game from Chicago averaged a 1.6 rating and 3.16 million viewers on ABC, marking the fifth-largest audience of any kind in league history, behind only the 2024 All-Star Game, the winner-take-all Game 3 of the 1999 WNBA Finals, and two games on the league's inaugural weekend of play in 1997.
Viewership increased 44% from last year's All-Star Game, which Fever G Caitlin Clark missed due to injury (2.19M), but fell short of the record 3.44 million for the aforementioned 2024 All-Star Game, which featured Clark and a WNBA vs.
The neutral site college basketball game between Duke and Michigan scheduled for late December is now called off, according to a report by Matt Norlander of CBS Sports.
The interconference matchup between the longtime rivals was expected to air on Amazon's Prime Video as part of a three-game agreement between the streaming provider and Duke University for neutral site men's college basketball games. The Big Ten Conference and Fox Sports challenged the inclusion of the…
Whether against the Red Sox or Dodgers, nothing drives baseball viewership quite like the Yankees against a big market rival.
Last weekend's Dodgers-Yankees "Sunday Night Baseball" game on NBC averaged a combined 3.9 million viewers across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (1.8 rating, 3.62M viewers) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics, trailing only an abbreviated Yankees-Red Sox telecast last month (4.0M) as the most-watched edition of "Sunday Night Baseball" since 2011.
The Yankees' win, which peaked with 4.6 million in the 9:45 PM ET quarter-hour, also delivered the largest regular season MLB audience in any window since the original "Field of Dreams" game on FOX in 2021.
Last week’s ESPY Awards averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.6 million viewers on ABC, trailing only an audience of 2.64 million two years ago — when coverage was delayed due to a special report — as the largest audience for the event since 2019 (3.87M).
Viewership increased 17% over last year, when the event drew its smallest non-COVID audience since 2011 (2.18M).
With viewership also increasing for the Heisman Trophy Presentation (4.3M in its ABC debut) and NFL Honors (3.7M across NBC and NFL Network), the ESPYs did not gain any ground on the other major awards shows in sports.
As with all sports figures of late, note that historical comparisons are skewed by changes in Nielsen methodology, specifically its 2020 inclusion and later expansion of out-of-home viewing, plus its shift last year to a methodology that integrates “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes with its traditional panel.
The Fever has yet to break in the WNBA, which saw another one of its largest audiences in more than a quarter-century last weekend.
Last Saturday's Liberty-Fever WNBA regular season game averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.58 million viewers on CBS, marking the league's third-largest regular season audience since 2000 -- trailing only Fever-Aces on NBC's "Sunday Night Basketball" the previous week (2.64M across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics) and Sky-Fever on ABC the opening weekend of last season (2.70M).
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).
In a year marked by stirring performances by American stars -- from Alysa Liu and Jack Hughes ending gold medal droughts to Bryce Harper’s two-run HR to level the World Baseball Classic final, to Malik Tillman’s free kick to send the USMNT to the World Cup Round of 16 -- the most-watched international competition by far pit Spain against Argentina.
Indeed, the FIFA World Cup Final was by far the most-watched television program of any…
The first North American World Cup in 32 years was the biggest viewership hit in the history of soccer on American television.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup averaged 7.74 million viewers across Fox Sports platforms (including pre-match coverage) and 6.3 million across Telemundo and Peacock (match window only), the latter figure combining a Nielsen-measured linear audience (3.2M) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics (3.0M) -- marking the most-watched World Cup on English and Spanish-language television, respectively.
The FIFA World Cup ended with one last viewership record.
Sunday's Spain-Argentina FIFA World Cup Final averaged a combined 66.4 million viewers across FOX (42.5M) and Telemundo (23.9M), the latter figure combining a Nielsen-measured linear audience with streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics -- marking television's largest audience, excluding NFL games and news events, since the series finale of "Seinfeld" in 1998 (76.3M).
Including NFL games, only the Super Bowl has averaged more viewers dating back to '98.
The fourth week of the BIG3 basketball season averaged a 0.3 rating and 596,000 viewers on CBS last weekend, flat and up 1% respectively from last year (0.3, 588K), a figure that is within the margin that can be explained by Nielsen methodological changes.
Viewership has now increased for all four BIG3 windows on CBS this season.
Final round coverage of the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament averaged 1.5 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (0.9 rating, 1.50M viewers) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics — up 49% from last year (1.0M) and the highest for the event since 2004 (1.6M).
NBC averaged 1.3 million for the full weekend, up 44% from last year and a 20-year high.
Final round coverage of the Scottish Open golf tournament averaged a 1.2 rating and 1.944 million viewers on CBS last Sunday, virtually even with the live portion of last year’s final round, which ended about an hour earlier than scheduled due to inclement weather (1.943M). (Compared to last year’s full window, which included 45 minutes of replay coverage, viewership increased 16% from 1.67 million.)
This year’s audience ranks as the second-highest on record for the event, behind 2022 (2.17M).
Third round action had a 0.9 and 1.75 million the previous day, the highest in at least 20 years, bringing the two-day average to 1.84 million — the highest on record for the event.
Last weekend’s rain-delayed NASCAR Cup Series race from Atlanta averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.47 million viewers on TNT Sports, per the official Nielsen “Big Data + Panel” methodology, and a 0.9 and 1.57 million per the old ‘panel-only’ metric NASCAR is now publicizing — both down from last year’s race at the track, which was not as severely delayed (1.61M).
Unlike last year’s half-hour delay, this year’s nearly three-hour interruption resulted in the race finishing shortly before 2 AM ET, the latest for a Cup Series event since Darlington in 2019.
The race had been averaging 2.5 million (“panel only”) and 2.4 million (“Big Data + Panel”) before the delay, which was excluded from the viewership averages. At one point, TNT showed reruns of “Wipeout” for nearly two hours.
The previous day’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race had a 0.6 and 1.01 million on CW.
Viewership records were shattered throughout the FIFA World Cup. Will Sunday's final be an exception?
It cannot be said enough that television ratings are not everything. In judging the performance of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, or the health and future of soccer, the ratings are just one data point. With that said, as far as data points go, this year's World Cup ratings are particularly compelling. Even the highest expectations going into this year’s…
Heading into the final 48 hours of the FIFA World Cup, the viewership records continue to fall.
The FIFA World Cup semifinals averaged 15.09 million viewers on FOX (including pre-match coverage) and 10.6 million on Telemundo and Peacock (match window only), the latter figure combining a Nielsen-measured linear audience (4.9M) with streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics (5.7M) -- marking the most-watched World Cup semifinal round ever on English or Spanish-language television, respectively.
The FOX audience increased 131% from the 2022 World Cup semifinals in Qatar, which took place during the winter months (6.53M).
Viewership for the two marquee MLB All-Star events went in opposite directions.
Drafting off of an indirect lead-in from the FIFA World Cup, Tuesday's MLB All-Star Game averaged 8.79 million viewers across FOX (8.675M) and Fox Deportes, marking the largest audience for the game since 2017. (The FOX-only audience was the largest since 2018.)
The American League's rare shutout victory, which peaked with 10.19 million in the 8:45 PM ET quarter-hour, increased 21% from last year's audience of 7.185 million.
Wimbledon viewership finished at a seven-year high on the ESPN networks.
ESPN averaged 853,000 for coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, up 18% from last year and the highest average for the event since 2019 (877K). This year's audience trails only 2019 as the highest since Wimbledon began airing exclusively on ESPN in 2012.
The opening round (734K), opening week (885K) and round of 16 (862K) were each the most-watched since ESPN began carrying Wimbledon in 2003, including an audience of 2.1 million for ABC's "middle Sunday" window and 1.8 million for Serena Williams' highly-anticipated return from retirement.
Pairing the league's highest-profile players and teams, the WNBA debut of "Sunday Night Basketball" delivered one of the league's largest audiences in 25 years.
In the first WNBA edition of NBC's "Sunday Night Basketball," Fever-Aces averaged 2.64 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (1.4 rating, 2.46M viewers) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics -- marking the largest audience of the WNBA season and the league's second-largest regular season audience since 2000. Officially, only last year's Sky-Fever opening weekend game on ABC averaged more viewers (2.70M).
The absence of the United States and Mexico has done nothing to slow down viewership for the FIFA World Cup.
The FIFA World Cup quarterfinals averaged 15.64 million viewers on FOX (including pre-match coverage) and 10.4 million on Telemundo and Peacock (match window only) -- the latter figure combining a Nielsen-measured linear audience with streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics -- marking the most-watched World Cup quarterfinal round ever on English or Spanish-language television respectively.
Compared to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which took place during the winter months, the FOX audience increased 150% from 6.25 million and the Telemundo audience 154% from 4.1 million.
Last Tuesday’s Wings-Liberty WNBA regular season game averaged 954,000 viewers on ESPN, marking the third-largest audience of the season on cable or streaming — with the top three coming within four days.
As previously noted, the top two games both involved the Fever — a Sunday night matchup with the Aces on ESPN (1.55M) and Caitlin Clark’s return to the lineup last Wednesday against the Sparks on USA (1.04M).
Indiana also played last Thursday night against the Mercury in a game that averaged 436,000 on Amazon Prime Video. Clark did not play. Storm-Dream led-in with 313,000.
Prime Video is averaging 439,000 viewers for WNBA games this season. The recent Commissioner’s Cup Final between the Aces and Liberty averaged 403,000 on the streamer.
MLB regular season viewership is mostly up on national television, led by newcomer NBC.
NBC is averaging 2.435 million viewers for its Major League Baseball coverage this season -- a figure that combines a linear Nielsen audience with streaming viewership measured by Adobe Analytics -- the highest of any of the league's broadcast partners.
The NBCU average is up 46% from last year's equivalent ESPN slate and the highest for the "Sunday Night Baseball" package at this point of the season since 2008.
Leave a Reply