From Sports Media Watch, a one-stop page for sports ratings news.
Another weekend, another set of viewership milestones for the WNBA.
Sunday's Fever-Dream WNBA regular season game averaged 2.58 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest WNBA audience of any kind ever on cable. The previous high was 2.54 million for Fever-Sun Game 2 in the first round of the 2024 playoffs, Caitlin Clark's most-recent playoff game.
Indiana's win, which peaked with four million viewers in the 7:15 PM ET quarter-hour, was the eighth game this season to average at least 2.4 million viewers -- doubling the previous 25 seasons combined.
The MLB Field of Dreams game returned after a four-year hiatus with a steep decline in viewership in its Netflix debut.
Last Thursday's Phillies-Twins Major League Baseball "Field of Dreams" game from Dyersville, Iowa, averaged just 1.66 million viewers on Netflix, per the Associated Press -- down by about half from the last time the event was held in 2022, when Cubs-Reds averaged 3.10 million on FOX.
Viewership was even lower compared to the original Field of Dreams game in 2021, a Yankees-White Sox matchup that averaged nearly six million viewers on FOX.
Last weekend’s IndyCar Series race from Portland International Speedway averaged a 0.37 rating and 677,000 viewers on FOX, down from last year (708K).
Viewership also trailed the previous IndyCar race from Nashville, which averaged 775,000 on a Monday afternoon after being postponed from its scheduled Sunday start — which would have immediately followed the FIFA World Cup Final.
Last Sunday’s championship game of the Little League Softball World Series — Clayton (N.C.) over Owensboro (Ky.) — averaged a 0.7 rating and 1.29 million viewers on ABC, down from last year’s record of 1.44 million.
In the previous day’s semifinals, ESPN averaged a 0.42 and 767,000 for Owensboro-Toms River (N.J.) and a 0.39 and 697,000 for Clayton-Lake Mary (Fla.).
Last weekend’s final round of the PGA Tour Wyndham Championship averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.59 million viewers on CBS, the highest for the event since 2015.
Michael Brennan’s win, which peaked with 3.96 million, increased a third over last year’s final round.
Third round action drew a 1.0 and 1.79 million.
Sandwiched between the WNBA and MLB “Sunday Night Baseball,” the women’s final of last week’s U.S. Gymnastics Championships averaged 1.4 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (0.8, 1.34M) and Adobe Analytics — the smallest audience for the women’s final of the event in more than 15 years.
Coverage aired earlier than in previous years to accommodate NBC’s MLB coverage. Viewership trailed both the WNBA lead-in (1.6M) and MLB lead-out (2.1M).
Coverage of the previous day’s men’s competition averaged 799,000.
Last weekend’s Astros-Padres MLB “Sunday Night Baseball” game on NBC averaged a combined 2.1 million viewers across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (1.1 rating, 2.01M viewers) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics — up from Cardinals-Cubs on ESPN last year (1.98M), but the least-watched Sunday night game since Rangers-Red Sox in June (1.7M).
Viewership trailed the previous night’s regional MLB window on FOX, which averaged a 1.2 and 2.22 million — marking the first time since Fourth of July weekend that FOX has delivered the top MLB audience of a week.
In other action for the week ending last Sunday, ESPN averaged a 0.6 and 1.15 million for Pirates-Brewers on August 5 and a 0.51 and 899,000 for Giants-Rangers two nights earlier.
The USA Network portion of the NASCAR season began much the same way the TNT portion ended.
Last weekend's NASCAR Cup Series race from Iowa averaged a 1.1 rating and 1.86 million viewers on USA Network, per the Nielsen "Big Data + Panel" methodology that is the official currency, and a 1.1 and 1.93 million per the prior panel-only methodology that NASCAR now reports for its races. Both figures mark a decline from last year's 1.2 and 2.17 million for the same race on the same network.
The Fever shows no sign of easing as the WNBA continues to deliver some of its largest audiences in the past quarter-century.
Tuesday's Fever-Liberty WNBA regular season game averaged 2.01 million viewers on ESPN, marking the fourth-largest WNBA audience ever on cable, trailing only three games in 2024 -- Caitlin Clark's career debut against Connecticut (2.11M), her second career meeting with Angel Reese (2.30M), and the winner-take-all Game 5 of the WNBA Finals (2.15M). Each of those games aired on ESPN or ESPN2.
Even with a pairing of teams that finished under .500 last season, the NFL Hall of Fame Game still delivered its customary audience.
Last Thursday's Panthers-Cardinals Pro Football Hall of Fame Game averaged 6.99 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-measured linear audience and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics -- officially ranking as the most-watched edition of the preseason opener in five years, since Steelers-Cowboys on Fox Sports in 2021 (7.33M).
The Panthers' win was also the most-watched Hall of Fame Game on NBC Sports since 2017 (Cowboys-Cardinals: 8.3M).
Last weekend’s New York-California Premier Lacrosse League match averaged 612,000 viewers on ABC, marking the largest audience on record for the PLL. Note that the match had a direct lead-in from a Fever-Lynx WNBA game that averaged 2.5 million.
The recently-completed AUSL softball season averaged 219,000 viewers across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ABC, up 152% from the same point last year, when most games aired on ESPNU or ESPN2.
The top audience of the season was 732,000 for Game 1 of the championship series on ABC July 25, the first pro softball match to air on broadcast television. The clinching Game 2 averaged 366,000 on ESPN the following day.
Last Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour Rocket Classic from Detroit averaged a 1.8 rating and 3.23 million viewers on CBS, marking the highest final round average on record for the tournament, which began in 2019.
Michael Thorbjornsen’s win increased 16% from last year’s final round, which took place in June (2.80M). The peak quarter-hour — just shy of 4.0 million — actually finished well below last year’s (5.13M).
Third round action last Saturday drew a 1.3 and 2.26 million. CBS is averaging 3.46 million viewers for the season, up 17% from last year and its highest average since 2006.
WNBA viewership is comfortably ahead of last year's pace entering the final weeks of the regular season.
WNBA regular season games were averaging 756,000 viewers through Wednesday across NBCUniversal, ESPN/ABC, CBS, ION, USA Network and NBA TV, a figure that includes Adobe Analytics for NBC games -- up 15% from last year. That is beyond the range one would typically attribute to Nielsen's methodological changes of the past year, namely its shift to a new methodology that integrates "Big Data" from smart TVs and set-top boxes with its traditional panel.
The Dodgers' acquisition of Tarik Skubal has inflamed no shortage of backlash on social media, and attracted no shortage of eyeballs to television sets.
Tuesday's Dodgers-Cubs Major League Baseball game averaged 923,000 viewers across TBS, truTV and HBO Max, marking the largest MLB regular season audience on the TNT Sports networks since an Indians-Yankees game in April 2009 (1.1M). (A previous version of this article stated that it was the most-watched on TNT Sports since it began carrying national MLB in 2007, but that was based on an error in the company's announcement Friday.)
Last weekend’s final round of the PGA TOUR 3M Open from Minneapolis averaged a 2.1 rating and 3.71 million viewers on CBS, marking the largest audience on record for the event (debuted in 2019).
21-year-old Jackson Koivun’s win, which peaked with 4.87 million viewers, increased 100% from last year (1.85M).
The telecast was the most-watched sporting event of the weekend, ahead of the previous night’s WNBA All-Star Game (3.16M) and the Yankees-Phillies “Sunday Night Baseball” game on NBC later in the evening (3.15M).
Third round action averaged a 1.2 and 2.04 million — itself higher than any final round of the tournament since 2020.
Tuesday’s Fever-Storm WNBA regular season game averaged 1.4 million viewers on ESPN, trailing only Fever-Aces earlier in the month (1.55M) as the most-watched WNBA game on cable or streaming this season.
It may be easy to overlook given the historic juggernaut in Los Angeles, but the New York Yankees have not ceded their position as the biggest TV draw in baseball.
Last weekend's Yankees-Phillies "Sunday Night Baseball" game on NBC averaged 3.15 million viewers across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (1.7 rating, 2.91M viewers) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics -- up 90% from Mets-Giants on ESPN and ESPN2 last year (1.66M) and the fifth-largest audience of the MLB season.
NASCAR viewership continues to take a "Big Data" hit on linear TV, with the TNT portion of the season down slightly under the new methodology -- and up slightly under the old.
The five NASCAR Cup Series races on TNT Sports averaged 2.0 million viewers per the Nielsen "Big Data + Panel" data that is the official currency, down slightly from a year ago, but 2.1 million per the prior 'panel-only' methodology that NASCAR is now publicizing for its races -- up 4%.
The WNBA delivered one of its five largest audiences on record for Saturday's All-Star Game.
Saturday's WNBA All-Star Game from Chicago averaged a 1.6 rating and 3.16 million viewers on ABC, marking the fifth-largest audience of any kind in league history, behind only the 2024 All-Star Game, the winner-take-all Game 3 of the 1999 WNBA Finals, and two games on the league's inaugural weekend of play in 1997.
Viewership increased 44% from last year's All-Star Game, which Fever G Caitlin Clark missed due to injury (2.19M), but fell short of the record 3.44 million for the aforementioned 2024 All-Star Game, which featured Clark and a WNBA vs.
Whether against the Red Sox or Dodgers, nothing drives baseball viewership quite like the Yankees against a big market rival.
Last weekend's Dodgers-Yankees "Sunday Night Baseball" game on NBC averaged a combined 3.9 million viewers across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (1.8 rating, 3.62M viewers) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics, trailing only an abbreviated Yankees-Red Sox telecast last month (4.0M) as the most-watched edition of "Sunday Night Baseball" since 2011.
The Yankees' win, which peaked with 4.6 million in the 9:45 PM ET quarter-hour, also delivered the largest regular season MLB audience in any window since the original "Field of Dreams" game on FOX in 2021.
Last week’s ESPY Awards averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.6 million viewers on ABC, trailing only an audience of 2.64 million two years ago — when coverage was delayed due to a special report — as the largest audience for the event since 2019 (3.87M).
Viewership increased 17% over last year, when the event drew its smallest non-COVID audience since 2011 (2.18M).
With viewership also increasing for the Heisman Trophy Presentation (4.3M in its ABC debut) and NFL Honors (3.7M across NBC and NFL Network), the ESPYs did not gain any ground on the other major awards shows in sports.
As with all sports figures of late, note that historical comparisons are skewed by changes in Nielsen methodology, specifically its 2020 inclusion and later expansion of out-of-home viewing, plus its shift last year to a methodology that integrates “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes with its traditional panel.
The Fever has yet to break in the WNBA, which saw another one of its largest audiences in more than a quarter-century last weekend.
Last Saturday's Liberty-Fever WNBA regular season game averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.58 million viewers on CBS, marking the league's third-largest regular season audience since 2000 -- trailing only Fever-Aces on NBC's "Sunday Night Basketball" the previous week (2.64M across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics) and Sky-Fever on ABC the opening weekend of last season (2.70M).
If overshadowed by a far larger world sport event, the British Open still more than held its own in viewership.
Sunday's final round of the British Open averaged 4.3 million viewers across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (2.0 rating, 3.49M viewers) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics, up 6% from Scottie Scheffler's win last year (4.1M), an increase that is within the margin that could be explained by Nielsen's methodological changes of the past year.
Ryan Fox's win, which peaked with 6.1 million in the 1:15 PM ET quarter-hour, officially ranks as the most-watched final round of the tournament since Cameron Smith won in 2022 (4.73M).
In a year marked by stirring performances by American stars -- from Alysa Liu and Jack Hughes ending gold medal droughts to Bryce Harper’s two-run HR to level the World Baseball Classic final, to Malik Tillman’s free kick to send the USMNT to the World Cup Round of 16 -- the most-watched international competition by far pit Spain against Argentina.
Indeed, the FIFA World Cup Final was by far the most-watched television program of any…
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