Recent sports TV ratings, including a rebound for the Belmont Stakes and high marks for the Women’s College World Series and USMNT-Mexico rivalry.
Belmont rebounds, but still on lower end historically
The race portion of horse racing’s Belmont Stakes averaged a 2.6 rating and 4.5 million viewers on NBC Saturday evening, up 35% from last year — when the race was delayed two weeks and aired as the first leg of an elongated Triple Crown season (3.33M) — but down 8% from 2019 (4.91M).
Essential Quality’s win tops only last year as the least-watched Belmont since 2000 (4.3M), the year before NBC initially took over the rights.
All three Triple Crown races this season increased at least a third over last year’s all-time lows, with viewership up 55% for the Derby and 197% for the Preakness. [NBC Sports PR]
WCWS averaging largest audience on record entering final
The Women’s College World Series is averaging 1.06 million viewers entering the best-of-three championship series, up 5% from 2019 and the highest average ever at this point of the event. Monday’s FSU-Alabama semifinal game averaged 1.63 million on ESPN, trailing only LSU-Michigan in the 2015 semis (1.95M) as the most-watched pre-finals game on record.
Saturday’s FSU-Oklahoma State game, which began shortly before Midnight ET and did not end until 2:18 AM, chipped in 532,000. [ESPN PR]
USMNT-Mexico top soccer match since ’19
Sunday’s United States-Mexico Concacaf Nations League final averaged 4.2 million viewers on Univision, peaking at 4.9 million — marking the largest soccer audience since the 2019 Gold Cup final between the same teams (5.9M on Univision and 8.8M overall). Figures were not available for English-language coverage, which aired on the streaming service Paramount+ and on CBS Sports Network, which is not Nielsen-rated.
The Univision telecast alone generated television’s largest audience of the week in both adults 18-49 and 18-34.
Univision also pulled 2.4 million for Mexico-Costa Rica and 1.3 million for United States-Honduras in the semifinals. [Univision PR]
