From Sports Media Watch, a one-stop page for sports ratings news.
The season premiere of the BIG3 basketball league — including a Miami-Los Angeles game that was shortened after an altercation — averaged 560,000 viewers on CBS last weekend, on par with last year’s season average.
The second season of NASCAR on Prime Video posted an increase in viewership.
Amazon Prime Video averaged 2.29 million viewers for its five-race NASCAR Cup Series package this season, per the Nielsen "Big Data + Panel" data that are the official currency, and 2.0 million per the prior panel-only figures that NASCAR is now publicizing. The 15% gap between "Big Data + Panel" and panel-only is a sharp difference from the Fox Sports portion of the season, in which the "Big Data" figures were actually slightly lower than their panel-only equivalent (3.4 to 3.34 million).
Caitlin Clark and the Fever continue to rank as the biggest viewership draw in the WNBA, posting another one of the season's top audiences last weekend. Saturday's Fever-Dream WNBA regular season game averaged 1.7 million viewers on ABC, marking the third-largest audience of the season behind Fever-Liberty on CBS earlier this month (2.6M) and Wings-Fever on the opening weekend of the season (2.5M).
Going back further, Atlanta's win ranks as the seventh-most watched regular season WNBA game on ABC, which began carrying games in 2003.
Despite a late night start and nothing at stake, the United States men's soccer team delivered another audience among the largest on record for the FIFA World Cup.
Thursday's United States-Turkey FIFA World Cup group stage match averaged a preliminary audience of 15.86 million viewers on FOX, a figure includes pre-match coverage -- marking the fourth-largest audience on record for the men's World Cup on English-language television, trailing only the finalized viewership figures for the two previous USMNT matches against Paraguay (18.04M) and Australia (16.22M) and the 2022 Argentina-France final (16.78M).
The Men's College World Series finished among the most-watched on record, but that did not extend to the Final.
The complete NCAA Men's College World Series averaged 1.5 million viewers across the ESPN family of networks, up 24% from last year and the third-highest average on record behind 2023 and 2024, but the three-game Oklahoma-North Carolina MCWS Final was the least-watched in four years with an average of 2.0 million -- down 21% from last year's two-game Final between LSU and Coastal Carolina.
Featuring a highly-touted rookie class, the NBA Draft scored a solid viewership bump.
Tuesday's opening round of the NBA Draft averaged 4.2 million viewers on ESPN and ABC, up 10% from last year, when Cooper Flagg was picked first overall (3.8M). In the six years since ABC began simulcasting the first round of Draft in 2021, this year's opening round audience ranks third behind 2023 -- when Victor Wembanyama was picked first overall (4.9M) -- and 2024, when Bronny James was the highest-profile prospect (4.4M).
Getting a lift from the U.S. Open, NBC's "Sunday Night Baseball" delivered the largest MLB audience outside of Opening Day last weekend.
Airing immediately after the final round of the U.S. Open, the latest edition of NBC's "Sunday Night Baseball" (Mets-Phillies) averaged a combined 3.00 million viewers across a Nielsen-measured linear audience and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics -- the largest audience for a Sunday night game since the 2017 season opener (Cubs-Cardinals: 3.6M), and the largest excluding season openers since Yankees-Red Sox in 2013 (3.1M).
The FIFA World Cup continues to deliver substantial audiences heading into the stretch run of the group stage, and not just for matches involving the United States and Mexico.
Through Sunday, FIFA World Cup matches were averaging 5.9 million viewers on Fox Sports (including pre-match coverage), and 5.5 million on Telemundo (match window only), with the latter figure combining Nielsen-measured linear viewership with a streaming audience of 2.3 million tracked by Adobe Analytics. Both figures are up a triple-digit percentage from the previous World Cup four years ago in Qatar, which took place in the winter months.
Faced with tough competition from the FIFA World Cup, golf's US Open eked out an uptick in viewership over last year.
Sunday's final round of the U.S. Open from Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in New York averaged 5.5 million viewers on NBC, combining a linear audience measured by Nielsen (2.6 rating, 5.1M viewers) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics -- trailing only Bryson DeChambeau's narrow win over Rory McIlroy two years ago as the most-watched final round of an East Coast U.S.
Last Thursday’s Dream-Fever WNBA regular season game averaged 816,000 viewers on Amazon Prime Video, the largest WNBA audience yet for the streamer, which is in its first season of carrying Nielsen-rated games.
Atlanta’s win increased 19% from the season’s previous matchup between the teams — and their stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese — which also aired on Prime Video (686K). The teams played again this past weekend on ABC, figures for which will be available Wednesday.
The previous week, the Fever’s matchup against the Sky averaged 736,000 on Prime, part of a doubleheader that averaged 552,000.
Prime Video is now averaging 504,000 viewers for WNBA games this season, and outpacing the linear networks by 33 percent in adults 18-34, and 9% by adults 18-49.
Nielsen has revised its viewership estimates for Telemundo from June 11-15, a span that included the first five days of the FIFA World Cup, resulting in audience figures that are lower by 25-29 percent than what was originally reported.
Telemundo made the announcement on Monday, issuing revised viewership figures for its matches during that period. The June 11 Mexico-South Africa match that was previously reported to have averaged 13.4 million viewers across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics has been revised downward to 10.1 million.
The week prior to the U.S. Open, the final round of the PGA Tour Canadian Open averaged 2.34 million viewers on CBS — down slightly from last year’s 2.38 million. Third round action drew 1.68 million the previous day.
San Antonio led all markets for the NBA Finals, averaging a 25.9 rating for the Spurs’ five-game defeat at the hands of the Knicks. That figure almost certainly trails each of the Spurs’ previous NBA Finals — the market routinely delivered local ratings in the 30s and 40s during those years — albeit in a different era of television (and Nielsen methodology).
The nation’s top market New York ranked second with a 17.5 average rating. Local ratings for the Knicks’ previous Finals in 1999 were unavailable. New York’s previous championship series, the Yankees’ five-game loss to the Dodgers in the 2024 World Series, averaged a 12.2 locally.
Austin, Texas, placed third with a 12.8 rating, and Oklahoma City was the top market outside of Texas and New York with a 12.4.
Other top markets include Richmond, Va., and West Palm Beach, Fla. (9.9 each) and NBA markets Memphis (9.8), Atlanta (9.7), Minneapolis (9.6) and Philadelphia (9.4).
The second USMNT match of the World Cup delivered another milestone audience.
Friday's United States-Australia FIFA World Cup group stage match averaged a preliminary 14.78 million viewers on FOX, per Nielsen fast-nationals, marking the fourth-largest audience for a men's World Cup match on English-language television -- trailing only the previous week's USMNT-Paraguay match on FOX (18.04M), the 2022 Argentina-France final (16.78M), and a 2022 USMNT-England match that aired on the day after Thanksgiving (15.38M). The above figures include pre-match coverage.
The FIFA World Cup continues to set or approach viewership marks as it enters its second week.
Thursday's Mexico-South Korea FIFA World Cup match averaged a preliminary audience of 13.3 million viewers on Telemundo, combining Nielsen fast-nationals with a streaming audience tracked by Adobe Analytics -- up from the preliminary figure reported for Mexico's opening match against South Africa the previous week.
Mexico's win delivered the largest streaming audience -- 5.8 million -- ever for a World Cup match on Spanish-language television, topping the previous high of 4.9 million for Mexico-South Africa.
Airing in the window that used to belong to “Sunday Night Baseball,” last weekend’s West Virginia-North Carolina Men’s College World Series game averaged 2.0 million viewers on ESPN — the third-largest audience on record for a non-final Men’s College World Series game.
The Tar Heels’ win, which peaked with 2.3 million, increased from last year’s Giants-Dodgers “Sunday Night Baseball” game on ESPN (1.9M) — and also outdrew this year’s competing “Sunday Night Baseball” game on NBC, Rangers-Red Sox (1.7M).
The full opening weekend of the Men’s College World Series averaged 1.4 million viewers on the ESPN networks, up 44% from last year.
Wednesday’s Tempo-Fever WNBA regular season game averaged 1.00 million viewers on USA Network, marking the largest audience for a WNBA game on cable or streaming this season.
The latest edition of NBC’s “Sunday Night Baseball” (Rangers-Red Sox) averaged 1.7 million viewers on NBC, per a Nielsen-measured linear audience and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics — the least-watched of the five Nielsen-rated “Sunday Night Baseball” games this season. The previous low was 2.0 million for Padres-Mariners in May.
The Rangers’ win aired directly opposite World Cup matches, the clinching game of the Stanley Cup Final, and the UFC event at the White House.
Last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Pocono (Pa.) averaged a 1.66 million viewers on Prime Video, per the Nielsen “Big Data + Panel” methodology that is now the official currency, and 1.63 million on using the previous ‘panel only’ methodology now being publicized by NASCAR. The 2% difference is by far the smallest for a race on Prime Video this season, after the first three races saw a “Big Data” lift of 15-21 percent.
Note that the race was moved up two hours to avoid rain.
The “Big Data + Panel” figure, which peaked with 2.30 million in the 4 PM ET quarter-hour, declined 11% from last year (1.87M). That was still a less steep decline than the panel-only figure, which declined 18% from 2.0 million a year ago.
NASCAR Cup Series races on Prime Video are now averaging 2.29 million viewers on a “Big Data + Panel” basis, up 5% from last year (2.18M).
The corresponding Xfinity Series race on CW averaged 1.11 million on a panel-only basis, down 1% from last year.
One of the more attention-grabbing sporting events in recent years attracted a larger-than-usual audience to UFC.
Sunday's live UFC fight card at the White House averaged a U.S. audience of 7.0 million viewers on Paramount+, per custom Nielsen analysis, which would mark the largest Nielsen-measured audience for a UFC event. The previous high would be 5.68 million for the debut of UFC on FOX in 2011.
Note that it is unclear whether the custom Nielsen methodology is directly comparable to the data the company usually reports.
Viewership for the third season of the UFL was on par with the second.
The recently-completed UFL season averaged 674,000 viewers across the ESPN networks and Fox Sports, up 1% from last year (665K), a figure that is within the margin that can be explained by Nielsen methodological changes of the past year.
This year's average is down from the initial season of the UFL in 2024 (850K), but tops the combined average of the USFL and XFL when they competed against each other in 2023 (635K, not including Adobe Analytics for NBC games).
The Stanley Cup Playoffs enjoyed an Olympic-sized jump in viewership.
The complete 2026 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs averaged 1.8 million viewers in the United States across ESPN/ABC and TNT Sports, up 68% from last year and the highest average on record for the playoffs on American television (dating back to 1994), surpassing the previous high set in 1996 by 17% (1.56M). Note that Nielsen did not begin including out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020, only began doing so in 100 percent of markets a year ago, and is months into a new methodology that combines its traditional panel with "Big Data" from smart TVs and set-top boxes.
The most-watched NBA Finals since 1998 capped the most-watched NBA Playoffs since 1998.
The 2026 NBA Playoffs averaged 6.35 million viewers across ESPN/ABC, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video, a figure that includes Adobe Analytics for NBC games -- up 34% from last year on ESPN/ABC, TNT and NBA TV (4.74M) and the most-watched postseason since 1998 (7.67M). The previous high over that span was 6.06 million in 2000. (Figures do not include the seven games that aired on Peacock and NBCSN, which were not Nielsen rated.)
After milestone audiences for Mexico last Thursday and the United States on Friday, Brazil kept the momentum going into the first weekend of the FIFA World Cup.
Saturday's Brazil-Morocco FIFA World Cup match averaged 11.2 million viewers on Telemundo (combining a Nielsen-measured linear audience and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics), plus a Nielsen-measured 10.02 million on FOX. Note that the Telemundo figure is for the match window only, while the Fox Sports audience includes pre-match coverage.
It may not have seemed particularly attractive on paper, but Hurricanes-Golden Knights ended up as one of the more memorable -- and most-watched -- Stanley Cup finals.
Sunday's Hurricanes-Golden Knights NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 6 averaged a 2.8 rating and 5.92 million viewers on ABC, trailing only Oilers-Panthers Game 7 on ABC in 2024 (7.67M) as the most-watched NHL game in seven years -- since Blues-Bruins Game 7 on NBC in 2019 (8.91M, per Nielsen and Adobe Analytics).
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