Ratings and viewership fell to a three-year low for IndyCar’s premier event.
The 2016 Indianapolis 500 had a 3.9 final rating and 6.0 million viewers on ABC Sunday afternoon, down 7% in ratings and viewership from last year (4.2, 6.5M) and flat and down 1%, respectively, from 2014 (3.9, 6.1M). The numbers mark an improvement over the previously reported fast-nationals, a 3.8 and 5.8 million.
Alexander Rossi‘s win, which peaked at a 4.4 and 6.8 million from 3-3:30 PM ET, tied the third-lowest Indy 500 rating since the race began airing live in 1986. The 2013 race had a 3.7 rating and the 2010 race earned a record-low 3.6.
The race could very well have matched 2010’s record low if not for dramatically increased viewership in Indianapolis, where coverage aired live for the first time since 1950. The market’s 33.6 rating not only came close to tripling last year’s 12.9, it added two tenths of a ratings point to the national figure.
For the second straight year, the Indy 500 attracted more viewers than NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 later in the day. The NASCAR race had 5.7 million, its smallest audience since at least 2000 (excluding rainouts). The past two years mark the only times since NASCAR moved to FOX in 2001 that the Indy 500 earned a larger audience than its stock car counterpart.
Still, the Indy 500 was no match for its true NASCAR equivalent, the Daytona 500 in February. That race had a 6.6 and 11.6 million, and those were historically low results.
Streaming coverage of the race on WatchESPN had 23,000 viewers per minute, boosting the national audience from 5.86 million to 5.89 million.
(Sun. numbers from ESPN)
