The F1 season was a ratings hit for ESPN/ABC, finishing as the most-watched ever on U.S. television.
The 2021 Formula 1 season was the most-watched ever in the U.S. with an average of 934,000 viewers across ESPN, ABC and ESPN2, up 54% from last year’s delayed, shortened campaign (608K), up 39% from 2019 (672K) and up 25% from the previous all-time high of 748,000 in 1995. The season concluded with a 0.55 rating and 963,000 viewers for last Sunday’s race at Abu Dhabi, up 77% in ratings and 84% in viewership from last year (0.31, 523K) and the largest audience ever for the race.
Max Verstappen’s controversial win delivered the ninth-largest F1 audience ever on cable. Seven of the top ten came this season alone, with June’s French Grand Prix (1.06M) and July’s British Grand Prix (1.03M) trailing only the 1995 Brazilian Grand Prix (1.74M) as the most-watched in cable history.
It should be noted that none of this year’s races rank among the ten most-watched overall, a list dominated by early 2000s, mid-afternoon races on broadcast television. The 2005 Grand Prix of Germany on CBS holds the #10 spot at 1.43 million. (The all-time record high is 2.78 million for taped coverage of the 2002 Monaco GP on ABC.)
The most-watched race of this season was one of the two to air on broadcast, the U.S. Grand Prix on October 24. That race averaged 1.2 million.
F1 viewership has steadily risen since the series moved from NBC to ESPN in 2018. Races averaged 538,000 in the final year on NBC four years ago before rising to 554,000 in year one on ESPN, 672,000 in 2019 and — after last year’s dip — this year’s record total.
Notably, Sunday’s season finale was the ESPN networks’ highest rated show of the day in adults 18-49 (0.34) and 18-34 (0.27). Keep in mind that the primary ESPN network carried just two live sporting events all-day, a doubleheader in the Women’s Jimmy V Classic. The 0.27 in 18-34 outperformed all of ABC’s primetime shows Sunday night.
ESPN’s primetime re-air of the Abu Dhabi race averaged 147,000 viewers.
Most-watched Formula 1 races in U.S. cable history
[Nielsen estimates from network PR, ShowBuzz Daily 12.14]
