Sports Ratings Tracker

Michael Jordan returned to victory lane for a second-straight week and the third time in a year, but there is no sign yet that his run of success is impacting the ratings.

Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race from Atlanta averaged a 2.4 rating and 4.49 million viewers on FOX, flat in ratings and down 2% in viewership from last year (2.4, 4.59M). If narrowly, it was the least-watched edition of the race in the three years since it moved into the weekend after Daytona.

A top-three, late-season, non-conference matchup of two iconic programs delivered one of ESPN's better college basketball audiences.

Saturday's Michigan-Duke men's college basketball game averaged a 2.0 rating and 4.32 million viewers on ESPN, nearly doubling Kentucky-Alabama last year (2.17M) and marking the largest audience for a men's game on the ESPN networks since Duke-North Carolina in 2019 -- Zion Williamson's much-hyped first game against the Tar Heels (4.34M). It also ranks among the ten most-watched men's games ever on ESPN (seventh).

A memorable finish to the Olympic hockey tournament delivered a milestone audience for NBC.

Sunday's United States-Canada Olympic men's hockey gold medal game averaged 18.6 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, per a combination of final Nielsen data and Adobe Analytics -- the largest hockey audience of any kind since the 2010 Olympic gold medal game between the same two teams, which aired in a mid-afternoon window (27.6M).

Viewership doubled the previous high over that span, 9.3 million for last year's "Four Nations Face-Off" final between the same two teams.

Benefiting from the same broadcast network exposure and Winter Olympics lead-in that boosted Sunday's NBA All-Star Game, NBA All-Star Saturday also rebounded in the ratings.

Last weekend's NBA All-Star Saturday averaged a 2.2 rating and 4.42 million viewers on NBC, with the latter figure rising to 5.36 million including a Spanish-language broadcast on Telemundo and streaming viewership measured by Adobe Analytics -- the largest audience for the annual skills competition since 2017 (5.64M).

Viewership increased 58% from last year's Nielsen-only TNT audience of 3.39 million.

With the United States women delivering a strong night at the rink, NBC saw one of its stronger audiences of the Olympic Games.

Thursday's "primetime" coverage of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics averaged a combined 26.7 million viewers on the NBC family of networks across a live daytime airing and primetime replay, per a combination of Nielsen preliminary data and Adobe Analytics -- the third-largest audience of the Games, behind last Sunday (27.8M) and Super Bowl Sunday coverage that the network says grossed 42 million.

For the second time in four years, the Super Bowl audience has been revised upward after the fact.

Nielsen said Thursday that the final metrics for the February 8 Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl 60 have been revised upward to a 39.7 rating and 125.6 million viewers across NBC, Telemundo, Peacock and additional streaming platforms -- up from the 39.4 and 124.9 million that were originally reported. The measurement company said the revision is because "a Big Data provider did not properly collect data from its devices on February 8, which impacted the Big Data + Panel count."

Though it did not go entirely unscathed from the elements, the Daytona 500 rebounded from the past two rain-soaked years on a crowded sports day.

Last Sunday's Daytona 500 averaged a 3.8 rating and 7.49 million viewers on FOX, marking the highest rated and most-watched edition of the race since 2023. It was the first Daytona 500 since 2023 that was not delayed due to rain, but it was nonetheless impacted by the weather -- moving up an hour due to the forecast.

Winter Olympics viewership continues to rebound from the lows of Beijing four years ago.

Through Tuesday, NBC's "primetime" coverage of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics is averaging a combined 23.8 million viewers across a live afternoon window and primetime replay -- a figure that combines a mix of preliminary and final Nielsen data with streaming viewership measured by Adobe Analytics -- up 86% from the same point of the Beijing Winter Olympics four years ago (12.8M).…

In its return to broadcast television on NBC, the revamped NBA All-Star Game bounced back both on the court and off.

Sunday's NBA All-Star Game averaged a Nielsen-estimated 3.3 rating and 6.73 million viewers on NBC, with the latter figure rising to 8.8 million including a Spanish-language audience on Telemundo and an Adobe Analytics-measured streaming audience on Peacock -- marking the largest audience for the annual exhibition since 2011 (9.1M).

The USA vs. the World round-robin, which peaked with 9.8 million in the 7 PM ET quarter-hour, nearly doubled last year's Nielsen-only audience of 4.7 million on TNT Sports.

NBA viewership remains up double-digits entering the All-Star break, led by its linear TV partners.

NBA regular season games were averaging 1.80 million viewers across NBCUniversal, ESPN/ABC and Prime Video heading into the All-Star break, a figure that includes Adobe Analytics data for NBC games -- up 16% from last year and the highest average at this point of the season since 2018. Including games on NBA TV, which is airing fewer games under the new media rights deal and thus drags down the average less than in past years, viewership is up 38%.

A thrilling chapter of the Tobacco Road rivalry delivered in the ratings.

Saturday's Duke-North Carolina men's college basketball game averaged a 1.6 rating and 3.51 million viewers on ESPN, marking the rivals' highest rated and most-watched regular season meeting since Mike Krzyzewski's final home game in March 2022 (1.95, 3.98M). It was also the most-watched regular season men's game on the ESPN networks since 2022.

Take out that 2022 meeting and one would have to go back to the Zion Williamson season of 2018-19 to find the last time Duke-North Carolina averaged a larger regular season audience.

As with the Paris Summer Olympics 18 months ago, the combination of live afternoon and primetime windows has boosted NBC's audience for the Milan-Cortina Winter Games.

NBC's "primetime" coverage of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics is averaging 26.5 million viewers across all of its platforms (including Versant-owned USA Network and CNBC), per a combination of Nielsen and Adobe Analytics -- nearly doubling the comparable point of the previous Winter Games from Beijing four years ago (13.7M).

Those comparisons come with no shortage of caveats.

A ho-hum game on paper that was little better on the field, the Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl was the first in five years to post a decline in viewership from the prior year.

Sunday's Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl 60 averaged a 39.4 rating and 124.93 million viewers across NBC, Peacock and Telemundo, down 6% in ratings and 2% in viewership from Eagles-Chiefs last year on FOX, Tubi and Fox Deportes (41.7, 127.71M). It was the first Super Bowl to post a decline in viewership since Buccaneers-Chiefs on CBS in 2021, which took place at the height of the industry-wide COVID slump.

Eleven years ago, the Patriots and Seahawks met in an all-time classic Super Bowl that still ranks as the highest rated of the past 40 years.

One might ask how that is possible, as the Super Bowl seems to set a new record every year. But all of those records are for viewership, not ratings. While 'ratings' and 'viewership' get used interchangeably, they are distinct metrics. Viewership is a raw number that will tend to rise with population growth and is highly susceptible to methodological changes.

In the early returns, the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics posted a sizable gain over four years ago -- albeit with the usual caveats.

NBC coverage of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony averaged 21.4 million viewers across preliminary Nielsen data and Adobe Analytics, up 34% from Beijing four years ago (15.9M). Both this year and in 2022, figures include both the live afternoon broadcast and primetime re-air. The preliminary Nielsen data is expected to be very close to the final result, which is not going to be publicized until Tuesday.

NHL viewership is up double-digits heading into the league's first Olympic break in 12 years.

NHL regular season games are averaging 491,000 viewers entering the Olympic break, up 15% from the same point last year. While some of the gains can be attributed to Nielsen methodological changes -- specifically the expansion of its out-of-home viewing sample and shift to a new methodology that adds "Big Data" from smart TVs and set-top boxes to its traditional panel -- those are unlikely to fully explain an increase of that size.