Viewership for the US Open finals, and the tournament as a whole, hit multi-year highs on ESPN.
Last Saturday’s Bianca Andreescu-Serena Williams US Open women’s final averaged 3.72 million viewers on ESPN, marking the most-watched match at the tournament since the Serena Williams-Venus Williams quarterfinal in 2015 (6.00M), and the most-watched final since Serena Williams-Caroline Wozniacki on CBS in 2014 (4.50M).
Viewership increased 21% over Williams’ loss to Naomi Osaka last year (3.08M). ESPN’s full three-hour telecast window was up a more modest 5% in ratings (from 1.9 to 2.0) and 4% in viewership (from 3.10M to 3.22M).
On Sunday, the Rafael Nadal-Daniil Medvedev men’s final averaged a 1.6 and 2.75 million — up 29% in ratings and 33% in viewership from last year (Novak Djokovic-Juan Martin del Potro: 1.3, 2.07M), and up 73% and 86% respectively from 2017 (Nadal-Kevin Anderson: 0.95, 1.48M).
Nadal’s five-set win, which stretched into primetime, ranks as the highest rated and most-watched US Open men’s final since Djokovic-Roger Federer in 2015 (1.8, 3.32M).
The complete US Open averaged 1.28 million viewers across ESPN and ESPN2, up 23% from last year (1.04M), and the highest average since ESPN began carrying the event exclusively in 2015. The previous high was 1.27 million in 2015, when Serena Williams pursued the calendar Grand Slam.
All but one telecast window increased over last year, the lone exception being the night session on the opening Friday of play. Last year’s comparable window featured Serena facing her sister Venus.
