Like the Masters last month, the second major of the golf season delivered another multi-year high in both ratings and viewership.
Sunday’s final round of the PGA Championship averaged a 3.1 rating and 5.76 million viewers on CBS, up 24% in ratings and 21% in viewership from last year (2.5, 4.76M) and the most-watched final round of the tournament since Phil Mickelson won five years ago (6.58M).
Aaron Rai’s win, which peaked with 8.02 million viewers and averaged 7.83 million over the final hour, also tied 2022 as the highest rated final round since Mickelson’s win (3.9).
Note that this year’s tournament was only the sixth PGA Championship since Nielsen began tracking out-of-home viewing in its estimates, the second since it began doing so in 100% of markets, and the first since it rolled out a new methodology that combines “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes with its traditional panel.
But as with the Masters, 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 tied a five-year high.
A bigger factor was likely reduced competition. After facing NBA playoff Game 7s the past two years, the PGA Championship faced zero NBA competition Sunday for the first time since 2023.
Third round action on Saturday drew a 2.2 (+29%) and 3.86 million (+24%), the largest third round audience since 2018 and tied as the highest rated since 2021.
The gains extended to ESPN, which averaged 1.7 million across its four days of coverage — up 49% from last year. Viewership topped out at 1.8 million for Friday’s second round (+40%), with weekend lead-in windows at 1.7 million on Sunday (+48%) and 1.6 million on Saturday (+52%). Last Thursday’s opening round brought up the rear with 1.5 million (+61%).
The gains for the PGA Championship are in keeping with the broader trend for golf viewership this year. The third and final rounds of the Masters both hit multi-year highs, and CBS this season is averaging its largest golf audience since 2015 (with the aforementioned caveats regarding Nielsen methodological changes).
