Ratings Roundup: UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 Final Delivers ESPN’s Top Soccer Audience, NASCAR At Michigan

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 Final delivers ESPN’s top soccer audiences and NASCAR ratings in Michigan.

UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 Final Delivers ESPN’s Top Soccer Audience In 2022

The UEFA Women’s European Championship 2022 final – a 2-1 England victory against Germany on Sunday from 12 – 2:30 p.m. ET – delivered an average audience of 971,000 viewers (P2+), making it the most-watched soccer match on ESPN networks in 2022. The audience peaked from 2:15-2:30 p.m. during the second half of overtime with 1.2 million viewers.

England-Germany, the match between two soccer rivals, beat the previous high: 732,000 average viewers on Sunday, June 5, who watched the Wales-Ukraine UEFA World Cup Qualifying Playoff Final on ESPN. The #WEURO2022 final is the most-watched women’s soccer match on ESPN networks since May 30, 2015, USA-South Korea match (998,000 viewers).

Top-10 markets: Norfolk (1.2), San Diego (1.0), Washington, DC (1.0), West Palm Beach (1.0), Austin, Texas (0.9), Miami (0.9), Buffalo (0.8), Raleigh-Durham (0.8), Las Vegas 0.8, and Richmond, Va. (0.7).

The 25-day competition capped an unprecedented summer of women’s sports across ESPN platforms, led by the critically-acclaimed “Fifty/50” content initiative.

Tournament Summary:

The 15 UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 group stage match windows on ESPN2 averaged 172,000 viewers, reflecting a 30 percent increase over the comparable time window (M-F 3-5pm; 132,000 viewers in June).

• Four quarterfinal matches delivered an average audience of 320,000 viewers, an 86 percent increase compared to the group stage average
• The semifinal matches averaged 326,000 viewers.

NASCAR Ratings Info – Michigan

NASCAR Cup Series – NASCAR ranked as the #1 sport of the weekend on television.

NCS Michigan earned a 1.54 rating on USA, with an average of 2.62M viewers tuned in.

The rating was up 3% over 2021 Michigan on NBCSN (1.49), while viewership was up 4% (2.5 million).
Second-most-watched NCS event year-to-date on cable behind only Atlanta on USA in July (2.63 million).

Viewership peaked with 2.9 million viewers tuned in NASCAR Xfinity Series – the event earned a 0.62 rating on USA with an
average of 1.00 million viewers tuned in.

The rating was up 13% over 2021 Michigan on NBCSN (0.55), while viewership was up 8% (926,000).

Highest-rated and most-watched 2022 NXS event on cable since COTA in March (0.64 rating, 1.10 million).

Second-most-viewed sports event of the week on USA ahead of Premier League and the AIG Women’s Open (golf), behind only NCS. Viewership peaked with 1.2 million viewers tuned in.