Daytona 500 Ratings at Record-Low

After an increase in the overnights, the Daytona 500 ended up in record-low territory.

Sunday’s Daytona 500 earned a 5.3 rating and 9.17 million viewers on FOX, flat in ratings and down 1% in viewership from last year (5.3, 9.30M) and down 20% and 23% respectively from 2017 (6.6, 11.92M).

Denny Hamlin‘s win ranks as the least-watched Daytona 500 on record, falling below the previous mark set last year. It is tied as the lowest rated ever, matching last year.

The record-lows are a marked reversal from the overnights, which increased eight percent.

Daytona has now set a record-low in three of the past six years. The all-time list of Daytona 500 ratings and viewership is available here.

The race capped a bleak decade for the Daytona 500. Seven of the ten lowest rated Daytona 500s took place during the 2010s, including the bottom five. With the exception of 2013 — when Danica Patrick‘s top-ten finish had a 9.9 and 16.7 million — no Daytona 500 this decade had as high a rating or viewership as any from 2001-09.

Daytona had an average streaming audience of 53,000, up 10% from last year (48K) and a NASCAR record. The combined TV and streaming audience of 9.22 million remains a record-low.

In adults 18-49, Daytona scored a mere 1.8 rating — down 14% from last year (2.1) and down 36% from 2017 (2.8).

While the highest rated and most-watched sporting event of the weekend overall, the race ranked just third in 18-49 — behind the NBA All-Star Game (2.8) and NBA All-Star Saturday Night (2.2). It did top AMC’s “The Walking Dead” in the demo (1.7).

The Daytona 500, which used to challenge the World Series and beat the NBA Finals, now trails nearly every comparable stick-and-ball sporting event. It topped the highest rated and most-watched game of last year’s Stanley Cup Final (3.9, 7.0M), but the NHL is an exception to the rule.

Greensboro, N.C., led all markets for Sunday’s race with a 15.1 rating. Greenville, S.C., was second at a 13.6. Knoxville, Tenn. (11.9), Charlotte (11.2) and Kansas City (11.1) rounded out the top five.