From Sports Media Watch, a one-stop page for sports ratings news.
The good times continue to roll for the NHL as the Stanley Cup Final posted another viewership mark on ABC.
Thursday's Golden Knights-Hurricanes NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 2 averaged a 2.4 rating and 4.675 million viewers on ABC, marking the highest rated and most-watched Game 2 of a Cup Final since Blackhawks-Lightning on NBC -- immediately following American Pharoah winning the first Triple Crown since 1978 -- in 2015 (3.9, 6.55M).
Keep in mind it was only the third Game 2 on broadcast television over that span, along with ABC's two previous Cup Final series in 2022 and 2024.
The Women's College World Series ended with its largest audience yet for a second-straight year.
Thursday's Game 2 of the Women's College World Series Final (Texas-Texas Tech) averaged a 1.3 rating and 2.48 million viewers on ESPN and ESPNU, officially marking the largest college softball audience on record -- surpassing the previous high set by last year's clinching Game 3 between the same two teams (2.41M).
Note that Nielsen did not begin including out-of-home viewing…
Last weekend’s final round of the PGA Tour at Colonial averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.40 million viewers on CBS, marking the top audience for the event in four years. (Note that changes in Nielsen methodology skew comparisons to past years.)
The telecast, which peaked with 3.44 million viewers during the playoff, increased 13% from last year (2.11M).
Third round action averaged a 1.1 and 2.00 million the previous day. CBS is now averaging 3.94 million viewers for golf coverage this year, up 14% from last year and its highest average since 2011.
Entering the Texas-Texas Tech final, the Women’s College World Series was averaging 1.5 million viewers on ESPN — up a third from last year and the highest average on record prior to the final. (Note that changes in Nielsen methodology skew comparisons to past years, particularly those prior to 2020, when the company began tracking out-of-home viewing in its estimates.)
This year produced five of the seven most-watched pre-Finals games. Airing in the window that used to belong to “Sunday Night Baseball,” Texas Tech-UCLA led the way with a 1.0 rating and 2.03 million viewers — the second-largest WCWS audience on record outside of the Final.
ESPN also drew the third and fourth-largest pre-Finals audiences on Monday, as both games of Texas Tech-Alabama drew 2.0 million — a 1.1 and 2.00 million and a 1.1 and 1.96 million.
ABC’s two games last weekend placed sixth and seventh, with Nebraska-Texas last Sunday at a 1.1 and 1.95 million and Texas Tech-Tennessee last Saturday at a 1.0 and 1.90 million.
One of the most anticipated NBA Finals in recent years opened with a television audience beyond even the highest expectations.
Wednesday's Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals Game 1 averaged 16.93 million viewers on ABC, officially surpassing last year's Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 7 (16.61M) to rank as the most-watched NBA game since 2019, when the clinching Raptors-Warriors Finals Game 6 averaged 18.59 million. Two of the top three have come in consecutive games, with Saturday's Spurs-Thunder Western Conference Finals Game 7 on NBC placing third with 15.90 million (across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics).
Last Sunday’s United States-Senegal men’s soccer friendly averaged 867,000 viewers on TBS, the most-watched USMNT match yet on TNT Sports. The United States’ win, which peaked with 1.1 million viewers, also ranks as the most-watched USMNT friendly on any network since 2019.
Last Sunday’s NHRA Potomac Nationals averaged 905,000 viewers on FOX in a post-IndyCar window, up 15% from last year (789K). The telecast was the first NHRA event of the season on broadcast.
Amazon Prime Video averaged 549,000 viewers for its May 28 WNBA doubleheader, up considerably from the previous week — when coverage aired opposite the NBA conference finals (161K) — and also up from the streamer’s season debut May 14 (529K).
The doubleheader included Prime’s first Nielsen-rated game involving Caitlin Clark, as the Fever’s matchup against the Valkyries averaged 662,000.
The Fever-Valkyries game averaged 115,000 viewers among adults 18-34, the second-most watched game of the season on any network in that demo. (Note that NBC’s presumably younger-skewing streaming viewership is not tracked by Nielsen.)
The recently-completed UFL regular season averaged 686,000 viewers across the ESPN family of networks (which now includes NFL Network), up 8% from last year. The ESPN networks accounted for nine of the ten most-watched games — with ABC alone accounting for eight — the lone exception being the Louisville-Dallas game on FOX that followed the Indy 500.
FOX averaged 670,000 for its UFL coverage, up 4% from last year (646K).
Continuing a months-long hot streak, the NHL Stanley Cup Final opened with its largest U.S. audience in seven years.
Tuesday's Golden Knights-Hurricanes NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 1 averaged a 2.3 rating and 4.78 million viewers on ABC, marking the highest rated and most-watched Game 1 of a Cup Final since Blues-Bruins on NBC in 2019 (2.9, 5.25M). The previous highs over that span were a 2.2 and 4.20 million for Lightning-Avalanche on ABC in 2022.
NBC's "Sunday Night Baseball" schedule began in earnest last weekend with a better matchup and larger audience than in its two previous editions.
Last weekend's Cubs-Cardinals "Sunday Night Baseball" game averaged a combined 2.5 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (1.3, 2.30M) and a streaming audience tracked by Adobe Analytics, surpassing the two previous Sunday night games on the network -- Guardians-Braves in April (2.2M) and Padres-Mariners in May (2.0M).
The Cardinals' win ranks second out of the five total MLB games on NBC so far this season, trailing the network's primetime Diamondbacks-Dodgers game on Opening Day (3.2M).
Last Saturday’s Fever-Fire WNBA regular season game averaged a 0.8 rating and nearly 1.3 million viewers on CBS, marking the least-watched Fever game on the network since Caitlin Clark was drafted (six total), including two primetime games last season that she missed due to injury. (Note that the five previous games pit Indiana against the New York or Chicago, rather than expansion Portland.)
Keep in mind the game aired directly opposite Game 7 of the NBA Western Conference Finals on NBC, which averaged a combined audience of 15.9 million across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
Indiana’s loss, which saw Clark score a season-low six points, was still the most-watched of the three WNBA games on CBS this season. In the same primetime window a week earlier, Sparks-Aces averaged 1.05 million. Earlier that day, Sky-Lynx drew 1.01 million.
The game was also the most-watched of the weekend in the WNBA. NBC averaged 984,000 for Aces-Valkyries on Sunday afternoon across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
Despite lacking the usual marquee teams, the Stanley Cup playoff viewership momentum carried into a fairly lopsided conference final round.
The NHL Stanley Cup Final was averaging 1.5 million viewers across ESPN/ABC and TNT Sports through the conference finals, up 59% from last year and the highest average on record at this point of the postseason (dates back to 1994). Viewership is up 13% from the previous high set in 1996.
Note that Nielsen did…
For the second-straight week, the NASCAR viewership story differed considerably based on the methodology being reported.
Sunday's rain-delayed NASCAR Cup Series race from Nashville averaged 2.01 million viewers on Amazon Prime Video per the official Nielsen "Big Data + Panel" currency, but only 1.66 million per the 'panel-only' methodology NASCAR is now reporting for its races. NASCAR last month said that it would no longer report its viewership using "Big Data + Panel," returning to the panel-only metric that was the industry standard until last September.
The highly-anticipated Spurs-Thunder NBA Western Conference Finals lived up to the billing on the court and in viewership.
Saturday's Spurs-Thunder NBA Western Conference Finals Game 7 averaged 15.90 million on NBC across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (12.67M) and a streaming audience tracked by Adobe Analytics (3.23M), officially ranking as the most-watched conference final game since Thunder-Warriors on TNT in 2016 (16.00M).
The Spurs' win, which peaked with 22.2 million viewers, increased a third from the previous conference final Game 7, Heat-Celtics on TNT in 2023 (12.00M).
Sunday’s IndyCar race from Detroit averaged 1.17 million viewers on FOX, up 10% from last year (1.06M) and the highest average for IndyCar at the venue since 2021, when coverage on NBC ran in a truncated telecast window due to French Open overrun.
Excluding that anomalous circumstance, it was the most-watched Detroit race since 2016 (1.40M).
Note that changes in Nielsen methodology skew comparisons to past years, particularly those prior to 2020, when the company began including out-of-home viewing in its estimates for the first time.
Including the Indy 500, FOX IndyCar races are averaging 2.24 million viewers, up 12% from last year (2.01M). That is officially the highest average at this point of the season since 2008, with the above caveats in mind.
Saturday’s UEFA Champions League Final, won by Paris-Saint Germain over Arsenal, averaged 3.09 million viewers on CBS — up 51% from last year (PSG-Inter Milan: 2.04M) — and the largest audience on record for a club soccer match of any kind on English-language television.
PSG’s win, which peaked with 3.93 million, surpassed the previous English-language high for a UCL final — 2.76 million for Real Madrid-Liverpool on CBS in 2022.
Note that changes in Nielsen methodology skew comparisons to past years, particularly those prior to 2020, when the company began including out-of-home viewing in its estimates for the first time.
The full UCL season on CBS averaged 1.71 million viewers, up 39% from last year.
Last Thursday’s opening day of the Women’s College World Series averaged 1.2 million viewers on ESPN, up 63% from last year and the highest average on record for the opening day of play.
This year accounted for three of the four most-watched opening Thursday games, including the top two — the primetime matchups of Arkansas-Nebraska at 1.4 million and UCLA-Alabama at 1.3 million. An afternoon game, Tennessee-Texas, took fourth place with 1.1 million.
The previous high prior to this year was 1.2 million for Arizona State-Alabama in 2008.
The four-game Golden Knights-Avalanche NHL Western Conference Final averaged 2.2 million viewers on ESPN, making it the most-watched WCF since 2015. The surprising sweep increased 44% from last year’s five-game Oilers-Stars series on ESPN.
Game 4 last Tuesday night averaged 2.1 million viewers, up 36% from last year and the highest for a Game 4 of the West Final since Blues-Sharks following The Preakness Stakes on NBC in 2016 (2.3M).
Game 3 was the most-watched of the series with 2.5 million in a Sunday night window, the highest for any conference final game on cable since Rangers-Lightning Game 6 on ESPN in 2022 (2.84M).
Last Thursday’s Thunder-Spurs NBA Western Conference Finals Game 6 averaged 11.59 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (9.28M) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics (2.32M), marking the largest audience for a conference final Game 6 since Lakers-Kings on NBC in 2002 (16.64M).
Note that changes in Nielsen methodology skew comparisons to past years, particularly those prior to the company including out-of-home viewing in its estimates in 2020.
The Spurs’ series-tying win increased 43% from last year’s lone conference final Game 6, Knicks-Pacers on TNT Sports (8.12M). (NBC’s position is that because Nielsen does not track its streaming viewership, its combined Nielsen + Adobe audience figures are comparable to the Nielsen-only figures of other networks.)
The recently-completed English Premier League season averaged 535,000 viewers across NBC and USA Network, per a combination of a Nielsen-measured linear audience and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics — trailing only the 2023-24 season (546K) as the most-watched across those platforms.
Viewership increased 5% from last year, within the margin that can be explained by Nielsen methodological changes.
Coverage on the NBC broadcast network averaged 1.2 million (Nielsen + Adobe), up from last year (1.0M) and the highest on record for the network. The network topped the million viewer mark 18 times this season, compared to 12 a year ago.
The season concluded with a combined audience of 2.4 million for Championship Sunday May 24, up 20% from last year (2.0M).
The NCAA softball super regionals averaged 695,000 viewers last week, up 48% from last year and the highest average on record for the round. This year produced the three most-watched individual super regional games, led by Arizona State-Texas Game 3 on ESPN last Sunday evening at a 0.7 rating and 1.28 million viewers.
Ranking second and third respectively, Texas Tech-Florida Game 2 on ABC and Nebraska-Oklahoma State Game 2 on ESPN both averaged 1.1 million last Saturday.
(Note that changes in Nielsen methodology skew comparisons to past years, particularly those before 2020, when the company began tracking out-of-home viewing in its estimates.)
Last Monday’s Princeton-Notre Dame NCAA men’s lacrosse national championship averaged 778,000 viewers on ESPN, up 37% from last year and officially the highest for the event since 2007.
(Note that changes in Nielsen methodology skew comparisons to past years, particularly those before 2020, when the company began tracking out-of-home viewing in its estimates.)
The previous day’s Northwestern-North Carolina women’s national championship averaged 470,000, up 83% from last year and the highest on record.
Leading out of the Indianapolis 500, last Sunday’s Louisville-Dallas UFL regular season game averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.59 million viewers on FOX — the largest regular season audience in the three-year history of the league. Viewership increased 18% from last year’s Indy 500 lead-out, Houston-D.C. (1.35M).
Last weekend’s edition of MLB on FOX averaged a 1.2 rating and 2.4 million viewers on FOX, up from last year’s equivalent window (2.3M), albeit within the margin that can be explained by Nielsen methodological changes.
FOX now owns seven of the 11 largest MLB audiences so far this season, with the caveat that NBC’s “Sunday Night Baseball” has only aired on Nielsen-rated television twice thus far. Three of the four exceptions took place on Opening Night (Netflix) and Opening Day (NBC).
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