Sports Ratings Tracker

From Sports Media Watch, a one-stop page for sports ratings news.

FilterLeagueDateSearchAll
Tennis
Mixed Doubles
Aug 26, 2026 · ESPN

Last week’s U.S. Open mixed doubles semifinals and final averaged 492,000 viewers, up 43% from last year, which was the first year of the revamped mixed doubles tournament. That figure includes 552,000 for the final.

The previous day’s mixed doubles coverage averaged 363,000, peaking at 502,000 during the 5 PM ET quarter-hour that included the pairing of Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz.

Tennis
Wimbledon
Jul 8, 2026 · ESPN

Coverage of Wimbledon was averaging 759,000 viewers on the ESPN networks through the quarterfinals, up 24% from last year and the networks’ highest average at this point of the tournament.

On Wednesday, Novak Djokovic’s five-set win over Felix Auger-Aliassime averaged 1.1 million, peaking at 1.5 million in the 5:45 PM ET quarter-hour.

Tennis
Australian Open
Jan 17–Feb 1, 2026 · ESPN

The Carlos Alcaraz-Novak Djokovic Australian Open men’s final averaged 730,000 viewers on ESPN in the overnight hours of last Sunday, up 57% from last year and the largest audience for the event since 2017, when Rafael Nadal faced Roger Federer.

The Elena Rybakina-Aryna Sabalenka women’s final drew 487,000 the previous night, up 8% from last year, when American Madison Keys won in three sets. But that is within the range that can be explained by Nielsen’s methodological changes of the past year.

Neither match was the most-watched of the tournament, as last Friday’s Alcaraz-Alexander Zverev semifinal drew 743,000.

The full Australian Open averaged 303,000 viewers, up 29%.

Source: ESPN
Tennis
US Open Singles Finals
Sep 6–7, 2025 · ABC, ESPN

Sunday’s Carlos Alcaraz-Jannik Sinner US Open men’s final averaged 3.0 million viewers on ABC, marking the largest audience for the event in a decade and an 82% increase over last year’s final between Sinner and Taylor Fritz.

The previous day’s Aryna Sabalenka-Amanda Anisimova women’s final averaged 2.4 million, up 50% from Sabalenka-Jessica Pegula a year ago.

Keep in mind that Nielsen as of last week began using a new methodology that combines its existing panel with “Big Data” for set-top boxes and smart TVs, a figure that will generally be higher than the panel-only numbers that were the currency previously.

Having said that, the year-over-year gains were so substantial that it is highly likely viewership would have been up considerably all things being equal.

(Correction 9/10: The men’s final had 3.0 million, not 3.2 million. The 3.2 million figure is the decade-ago 2015 figure.)

Source: ESPN

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson joins the pod; plus: CBS' JJ Watt decision and what it means for Troy Aikman
0:000:00
Sports Ratings Tracker
The SMX World Championship Series, including the indoor AMA Supercross Championship and outdoor Pro Motocross Championship, averaged 614,000 viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-measured linear audience and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics — up 17% from last year.
Nielsen has reprocessed the viewership for NBC’s four NFL games from Week 1-3 of the season. The Patriots-Seahawks Kickoff Game has been updated to 25.2 million, up from an originally-reported 25.1 million. The Week 1 Cowboys-Giants “Sunday Night Football” game has been updated to 25.82 million, up from 25.66 million. Colts-Chiefs the following week has been updated to 24.43 million, up from 24.29 million. Finally, Rams-Broncos in Week 3 has been updated to 20.96 million, up from 20.77 million.
Last Wednesday’s Liberty-Dream WNBA semifinal Game 2 averaged 1.4 million viewers on ESPN, down from Mercury-Lynx in the comparable window last year (1.5M). Last year’s games took place earlier in the calendar and did not face the MLB Postseason. Read more
The MLB American League Division Series was averaging 3.4 million viewers on TNT Sports through Thursday, up 2% from last year’s ALDS on Fox Sports. Last Thursday’s Guardians-White Sox Game 4 averaged 3.8 million opposite NFL “Thursday Night Football,” on par with Brewers-Cubs in the same window last year. Read more
Final round coverage of golf’s Presidents Cup averaged 2.0 million viewers on NBC last Sunday across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (1.1 rating, 1.88M viewers) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics — up 37% from the previous edition two years ago and the highest since 2017 (four telecasts).
NASCAR last week resumed reporting the official Nielsen “Big Data + Panel” ratings and viewership figures for its races, a move that coincides with Nielsen having rolled out a modified version of the methodology at the end of last month. The first race following that decision, Darlington over Labor Day weekend, averaged a 1.0 rating and 1.98 million viewers on USA Network — up 6% and 5% respectively from last year (1.0, 1.9M). Read more
NASCAR Cup Series racing from Daytona averaged a 1.7 rating and 3.12 million viewers on NBC a week ago Saturday, per the “Big Data + Panel” methodology that is the official Nielsen currency, and a 1.8 and 3.51 million under the old “panel-only” metric NASCAR now publicizes for its races. Read more

Latest Posts