From Sports Media Watch, a one-stop page for sports ratings news.
The only way to keep the USMNT and Mexico from setting new viewership records was to eliminate them from the World Cup.
Mexico's final game of the FIFA World Cup, Sunday's round of 16 loss to England, averaged a preliminary audience of 23.1 million viewers on Telemundo across a Nielsen-measured linear audience and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics -- easily the largest audience on record for soccer on Spanish-language television. The previous high was 18.9 million for Mexico-Ecuador in the round of 32 last Tuesday.
Last weekend’s second week of the BIG3 averaged a 0.4 rating and 677,000 viewers on CBS, up a third in ratings and 23% in viewership from week two last year. Both weeks of the three-on-three basketball league have increased from a year ago despite World Cup competition (with the standard caveat regarding changes in Nielsen methodology).
Benefitting from a FIFA World Cup lead-in, last weekend’s NHRA Nationals from Norwalk (Ohio) averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.47 million viewers on FOX — the sixth-largest audience on record for an NHRA event. The telecast, which peaked with 2.7 million viewers, more-than-doubled last year’s Norwalk event.
The NHRA was the second motorsports event in as many weeks to benefit from a World Cup lead-in. The previous weekend, IndyCar from Road America averaged 1.80 million on FOX — up 131% from last year and the largest IndyCar audience outside of the Indy 500 since 2011.
Last weekend’s Yankees-Red Sox Major League Baseball game on ABC averaged a 1.0 rating and 1.99 million viewers, comfortably surpassing the network’s previous MLB window last month (Giants-Cubs: 1.41M).
ABC actually carried two baseball games last weekend, with a “BananaBall” matchup last Sunday drawing a 0.7 and 1.18 million — the largest audience yet for the “Bananaball” franchise.
Returning to traditional baseball, ESPN averaged 667,000 for Guardians-Rangers Monday night.
CBS averaged a 1.0 rating and 1.57 million viewers for Sparks-Fever last Saturday night and a 0.9 and 1.53 million for Aces-Sky the following day, marking the fourth and fifth-largest audiences of the WNBA season, and the top two that did not feature Fever G Caitlin Clark.
In a first, four WNBA games aired on a single broadcast network over the same weekend. CBS also averaged a 0.7 and 1.26 million for Lynx-Wings on Sunday, with Mercury-Tempo on Saturday bringing up the rear at 798,000.
On ESPN, Liberty-Valkyries averaged 743,000 in the second edition of “Women’s Sports Sundays.”
In its return to linear television, NASCAR's recent "Big Data" lift went in reverse.
Last weekend's NASCAR Cup Series race from Sonoma (Ca.) averaged 1.8 million viewers on TNT and truTV, per the Nielsen "Big Data + Panel" methodology that is now official currency, but 1.9 million per the old panel-only metric that NASCAR is publicizing for its races -- marking the first time since the previous race on linear television in May that the "Big Data" figure trailed its panel-only equivalent.
Serena Williams' return to tennis keyed a record start to Wimbledon for ESPN.
Williams' first round Wimbledon singles loss to Maya Joint averaged 1.8 million viewers on ESPN Tuesday afternoon, helping the network to an average of 937,000 for the full day of coverage -- up 55% from last year and the network's most-watched opening round Wimbledon telecast on record. The full opening round, which included Monday's play, was also the most-watched on record with an average of 734,000.
Mexico set another Spanish-language viewership record in its knockout stage opener, but the far more interesting story is the breakdown between linear and streaming viewership.
Tuesday's Mexico-Ecuador FIFA World Cup knockout stage match averaged 18.9 million viewers on Telemundo and Peacock, a match window figure that combines Nielsen-measured linear viewership with a streaming audience tracked by Adobe Analytics -- the largest audience for a World Cup match on Spanish-language television. The previous high was 14.0 million for Mexico's group stage match against South Korea.
The USMNT was already drawing lofty audiences throughout the group stage, but the knockout round of the FIFA World Cup has taken those numbers to another level.
Wednesday's United States-Bosnia & Herzegovina FIFA World Cup round of 32 match averaged a preliminary Nielsen audience of 24.43 million viewers on FOX, a figure that includes pre-match coverage -- ranking as easily the largest audience to watch a soccer match on U.S. English-language television. The previous high…
The first North American World Cup since 1994 met all viewership expectations in the group stage, and then some.
The FIFA World Cup group stage averaged 5.05 million viewers on Fox Sports (including pre-match coverage) and 4.6 million on Telemundo and Peacock (match window only), with the latter figure combined across a Nielsen-measured linear audience and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics -- up 92% and 122% respectively from 2022 (2.64 and 2.07 million), when the event took place from Qatar in the winter months.
The circumstances were less than ideal, but NBC came away with multiple viewership highs for a Sunday night pairing of golf and baseball.
Sunday's weather-delayed final round of the PGA Tour Travelers Championship averaged a combined 4.2 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-measured linear audience and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics, leading into an abbreviated edition of "Sunday Night Baseball" (Yankees-Red Sox) at 4.0 million -- the most-watched editions of each since 2002 and 2011, respectively.
Last Friday’s opening round of the NHL Draft averaged 616,000 viewers on ESPN, up 15% from last year, and behind only the Connor Bedard draft of 2023 (681K) as the most-watched on record.
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).
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