Ratings Roundup: WNBA on ESPN Scores Most-Viewed Regular Season Since 2008, ESPN’s 2022 MLS All-Star Game Viewership Up 86%
Story Highlights
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, WNBA on ESPN scores its most-viewed regular season since 2008 and ESPN’s 2022 MLS All-Star Game viewership up 86 percent.
WNBA on ESPN Scores Its Most-Viewed Regular Season Since 2008
The 2022 WNBA on ESPN presented by Google season is the league’s most-viewed regular season since 2008. The 25 WNBA games across Disney networks averaged 372,000 viewers, a 19 percent spike versus the 2021 season.
Sunday’s ABC regular-season finale doubleheader also saw big increases with the Seattle Storm-Las Vegas Aces game averaging 852,000 viewers – the most-viewed WNBA game across all networks since May 17, 2008. The audience peaked with 1.1 million viewers and overall viewership was up 55 percent vs. the 2021 WNBA game average on ABC.
Sunday’s early Minnesota Lynx-Connecticut Sun game also averaged 682,000 viewers (up 24 percent), the fifth most-viewed game across all networks since 2012, with the audience peaking at 822,000 viewers. Both Sunday games combined to average 768,000 viewers, a 40 percent spike compared to last year’s regular season average on ABC.
ESPN’s 2022 MLS All-Star Game Viewership Up 86 Percent
ESPN’s telecast of the 2022 MLS All-Star Game presented by Target – a 2-1 MLS All-Stars victory over Mexico’s Liga MX All-Stars from 8:30 – 11 p.m. ET – averaged 334,000 viewers, up 86 percent compared to the 180,000 viewers for the 2021 MLS All-Star Game which featured the same MLS-Liga MX All-Stars format. The 2022 MLS audience peaked from 9:15-9:30 p.m. with 420,000 viewers.
With 334,000 average viewers, Wednesday night’s game scored the most viewed MLS All-Star Game on a U.S. English language network since 2018 – a 1-1 tie in regulation between MLS All-Stars and Juventus, won by the visiting Italian Serie A team in a 5-3 penalty shootout at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta (463,000 viewers).
NASCAR Ratings Info – Richmond
NASCAR Cup Series – The event at Richmond earned a 1.45 rating on USA, with an average of 2.40 million viewers tuned in
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- Most-watched NCS Richmond race during the NBC Sports portion of the season since 2016 (2.71 million viewers)
- Rating up +36% (1.07), viewership up +33% (1.8 million) over the 2021 event, which aired on a Saturday night on NBCSN (September)
- Rating up 15% (1.26), viewership up 11% (2.2 million) over 2021 NBCSN NCS average.
- NASCAR ranked as the #2 sport of the weekend, ahead of all NFL Preseason games and behind only Final Round coverage of the PGA TOUR’s FedEx St. Jude Classic which aired opposite the race on NBC
- Viewership peaked with 2.6 million viewers tuned in
FOX Sports Delivers Field of Viewers
