From Sports Media Watch, a one-stop page for sports ratings news.
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…
The first North American World Cup in 32 years was the biggest viewership hit in the history of soccer on American television.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup averaged 7.74 million viewers across Fox Sports platforms (including pre-match coverage) and 6.3 million across Telemundo and Peacock (match window only), the latter figure combining a Nielsen-measured linear audience (3.2M) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics (3.0M) -- marking the most-watched World Cup on English and Spanish-language television, respectively.
The FIFA World Cup ended with one last viewership record.
Sunday's Spain-Argentina FIFA World Cup Final averaged a combined 66.4 million viewers across FOX (42.5M) and Telemundo (23.9M), the latter figure combining a Nielsen-measured linear audience with streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics -- marking television's largest audience, excluding NFL games and news events, since the series finale of "Seinfeld" in 1998 (76.3M).
Including NFL games, only the Super Bowl has averaged more viewers dating back to '98.
The fourth week of the BIG3 basketball season averaged a 0.3 rating and 596,000 viewers on CBS last weekend, flat and up 1% respectively from last year (0.3, 588K), a figure that is within the margin that can be explained by Nielsen methodological changes.
Viewership has now increased for all four BIG3 windows on CBS this season.
Final round coverage of the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament averaged 1.5 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (0.9 rating, 1.50M viewers) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics — up 49% from last year (1.0M) and the highest for the event since 2004 (1.6M).
NBC averaged 1.3 million for the full weekend, up 44% from last year and a 20-year high.
Final round coverage of the Scottish Open golf tournament averaged a 1.2 rating and 1.944 million viewers on CBS last Sunday, virtually even with the live portion of last year’s final round, which ended about an hour earlier than scheduled due to inclement weather (1.943M). (Compared to last year’s full window, which included 45 minutes of replay coverage, viewership increased 16% from 1.67 million.)
This year’s audience ranks as the second-highest on record for the event, behind 2022 (2.17M).
Third round action had a 0.9 and 1.75 million the previous day, the highest in at least 20 years, bringing the two-day average to 1.84 million — the highest on record for the event.
Last weekend’s rain-delayed NASCAR Cup Series race from Atlanta averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.47 million viewers on TNT Sports, per the official Nielsen “Big Data + Panel” methodology, and a 0.9 and 1.57 million per the old ‘panel-only’ metric NASCAR is now publicizing — both down from last year’s race at the track, which was not as severely delayed (1.61M).
Unlike last year’s half-hour delay, this year’s nearly three-hour interruption resulted in the race finishing shortly before 2 AM ET, the latest for a Cup Series event since Darlington in 2019.
The race had been averaging 2.5 million (“panel only”) and 2.4 million (“Big Data + Panel”) before the delay, which was excluded from the viewership averages. At one point, TNT showed reruns of “Wipeout” for nearly two hours.
The previous day’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race had a 0.6 and 1.01 million on CW.
Viewership records were shattered throughout the FIFA World Cup. Will Sunday's final be an exception?
It cannot be said enough that television ratings are not everything. In judging the performance of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, or the health and future of soccer, the ratings are just one data point. With that said, as far as data points go, this year's World Cup ratings are particularly compelling. Even the highest expectations going into this year’s…
Heading into the final 48 hours of the FIFA World Cup, the viewership records continue to fall.
The FIFA World Cup semifinals averaged 15.09 million viewers on FOX (including pre-match coverage) and 10.6 million on Telemundo and Peacock (match window only), the latter figure combining a Nielsen-measured linear audience (4.9M) with streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics (5.7M) -- marking the most-watched World Cup semifinal round ever on English or Spanish-language television, respectively.
The FOX audience increased 131% from the 2022 World Cup semifinals in Qatar, which took place during the winter months (6.53M).
Viewership for the two marquee MLB All-Star events went in opposite directions.
Drafting off of an indirect lead-in from the FIFA World Cup, Tuesday's MLB All-Star Game averaged 8.79 million viewers across FOX (8.675M) and Fox Deportes, marking the largest audience for the game since 2017. (The FOX-only audience was the largest since 2018.)
The American League's rare shutout victory, which peaked with 10.19 million in the 8:45 PM ET quarter-hour, increased 21% from last year's audience of 7.185 million.
Wimbledon viewership finished at a seven-year high on the ESPN networks.
ESPN averaged 853,000 for coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, up 18% from last year and the highest average for the event since 2019 (877K). This year's audience trails only 2019 as the highest since Wimbledon began airing exclusively on ESPN in 2012.
The opening round (734K), opening week (885K) and round of 16 (862K) were each the most-watched since ESPN began carrying Wimbledon in 2003, including an audience of 2.1 million for ABC's "middle Sunday" window and 1.8 million for Serena Williams' highly-anticipated return from retirement.
Pairing the league's highest-profile players and teams, the WNBA debut of "Sunday Night Basketball" delivered one of the league's largest audiences in 25 years.
In the first WNBA edition of NBC's "Sunday Night Basketball," Fever-Aces averaged 2.64 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (1.4 rating, 2.46M viewers) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics -- marking the largest audience of the WNBA season and the league's second-largest regular season audience since 2000. Officially, only last year's Sky-Fever opening weekend game on ABC averaged more viewers (2.70M).
The absence of the United States and Mexico has done nothing to slow down viewership for the FIFA World Cup.
The FIFA World Cup quarterfinals averaged 15.64 million viewers on FOX (including pre-match coverage) and 10.4 million on Telemundo and Peacock (match window only) -- the latter figure combining a Nielsen-measured linear audience with streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics -- marking the most-watched World Cup quarterfinal round ever on English or Spanish-language television respectively.
Compared to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which took place during the winter months, the FOX audience increased 150% from 6.25 million and the Telemundo audience 154% from 4.1 million.
Last Tuesday’s Wings-Liberty WNBA regular season game averaged 954,000 viewers on ESPN, marking the third-largest audience of the season on cable or streaming — with the top three coming within four days.
As previously noted, the top two games both involved the Fever — a Sunday night matchup with the Aces on ESPN (1.55M) and Caitlin Clark’s return to the lineup last Wednesday against the Sparks on USA (1.04M).
Indiana also played last Thursday night against the Mercury in a game that averaged 436,000 on Amazon Prime Video. Clark did not play. Storm-Dream led-in with 313,000.
Prime Video is averaging 439,000 viewers for WNBA games this season. The recent Commissioner’s Cup Final between the Aces and Liberty averaged 403,000 on the streamer.
MLB regular season viewership is mostly up on national television, led by newcomer NBC.
NBC is averaging 2.435 million viewers for its Major League Baseball coverage this season -- a figure that combines a linear Nielsen audience with streaming viewership measured by Adobe Analytics -- the highest of any of the league's broadcast partners.
The NBCU average is up 46% from last year's equivalent ESPN slate and the highest for the "Sunday Night Baseball" package at this point of the season since 2008.
Athletes Unlimited Softball games were averaging 204,000 viewers on the ESPN networks through last weekend (10 telecasts), up 213% from last year, when the majority of games aired on ESPNU and none were carried on the flagship ESPN network.
The opening weekend Oklahoma City-Portland matchup on ESPN ranks as the most-watched of the season with 404,000 viewers. Another matchup of the same two teams averaged 324,000 on ESPN last weekend as part of the network’s “Women’s Sports Sundays” package.
The third week of BIG3 basketball averaged a 0.3 rating and 578,000 viewers on CBS last Sunday, up 8% in viewership from week three last year (0.3, 537K). All three weeks of the BIG3 season have increased year-over-year.
Last weekend’s Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest averaged 5.0 million viewers across ABC and ESPN2, more-than-tripling last year (1.6M) and easily the largest audience on record for the event. The previous high was 2.8 million for a taped airing in 2014 that immediately followed a FIFA World Cup match.
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.
FOX averaged a 1.4 rating and 3.335 million viewers for regional Major League Baseball coverage last weekend, marking the network’s largest audience of the season and the second-largest across all networks. The high water mark is 4.2 million for a partially preempted Yankees-Red Sox “Sunday Night Baseball” game on NBC last month, a figure that combines a Nielsen-measured linear audience with streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics.
The telecast trails only the aforementioned Yankees-Red Sox game as the most-watched regular season MLB telecast since the original “Field of Dreams” game in 2021.
Coverage had an indirect lead-in from the FIFA World Cup, which boosted the intervening MLB All-Star Selection Show to an unusually-massive 5.90 million.
As for NBC’s “Star-Spangled Sunday” promotion, Padres-Dodgers averaged 2.3 million on “Sunday Night Baseball” across Nielsen (1.1 rating, 2.16M viewers) and Adobe Analytics, and a rain-delayed Mets-Braves drew 1.9 million on “MLB Sunday Leadoff” (1.0, 1.80M per Nielsen, plus Adobe Analytics). ESPN carried two Sunday games on the same weekend last year, averaging 1.71 million for Cardinals-Cubs and 844,000 for Rangers-Padres.
NBCUniversal carried all 15 MLB games last Sunday, with 13 of those airing primarily on Peacock. Figures for those games were unavailable.
The Indiana Fever delivered more viewership highs this past week, both with and without Caitlin Clark in the lineup.
Wednesday's Fever-Sparks WNBA regular season game -- which marked Caitlin Clark's return after a two-week absence -- averaged 1.04 million viewers across USA Network and CNBC, the network's top audience of the season and the league's largest late night regular season audience on record (start time of 10 PM ET or later).
Four of the six most-watched games on cable or streaming this season have aired on USA Sports, all involving Clark and the Fever.
When it comes to NASCAR ratings this season, the methodology and the platform seem to matter more than the racing.
Last weekend's NASCAR Cup Series race from Chicagoland averaged 2.1 million viewers on TNT Sports, per the Nielsen "Big Data + Panel" methodology that is now the official currency, and 2.35 million per the old panel-only metric that NASCAR is publicizing for its races -- marking the second time in as many weeks on TNT that the "Big Data" figure trailed its panel-only equivalent.
The United States men's national team finished its World Cup run in front of one of the largest sports audiences -- NFL excluded -- of modern times.
Monday's Belgium-United States FIFA World Cup round of sixteen match averaged 33.09 million viewers on FOX, including pre-match coverage -- easily the most-watched soccer telecast ever on a single U.S. network, blowing past the previous high of 26.395 million for the previous USMNT match against Bosnia & Herzegovina.
The FOX audience, which peaked with 41.03 million in the 9:15 PM ET quarter-hour, is the largest for any non-NFL sporting event since Game 7 of the 2016 World Series (40.05M).
For the first World Cup in the United States since 1994, milestone audiences have not been limited to the home team, or home soil.
Sunday's Mexico-England FIFA World Cup round of 16 match averaged 21.74 million viewers on FOX, a figure that includes pre-match coverage -- ranking as easily the most-watched non-USMNT FIFA World Cup match ever on English-language television. That is on top of the 23.2 million who watched the Spanish-language broadcast on Telemundo (match window only), a record for a World Cup match on Spanish-language television.
The United States' World Cup run ended with the biggest viewership milestone yet.
Monday's Belgium-United States FIFA World Cup round of 16 match averaged a preliminary Nielsen audience of 30.0 million viewers on FOX, including pre-match coverage -- ranking as easily the largest soccer audience ever on U.S. English-language television, with or without pre-match coverage included. The previous high was 26.395 million for the previous USMNT match against Bosnia & Herzegovina.
The five USMNT matches…
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