Ratings Roundup: Caitlin Clark Breaks Records On the Court and With Broadcast Viewership Highs
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, USA-Canada CONCACAF Match is highest streamed women’s soccer match in Peacock history; LIV Golf opening round coverage scores over 2 million views; and more.
Caitlin Clark’s Record-Setting Game Draws Top Women’s Basketball Regular-Season TV Rating Since 1999
Caitlin Clark‘s record-setting game for Iowa against Ohio State on Sunday attracted more than 4 million television viewers at its peak and was the most watched women’s regular-season basketball game since 1999, Fox Sports announced Tuesday.
Clark scored 35 points and passed Pete Maravich as the NCAA Division I overall career scoring leader during the Hawkeyes’ 93-83 win.
Average viewership was 3.39 million and reached a high of 4.42 million late in the second half. Clark set the record with two free throws just before halftime. No women’s regular-season game on any network had more viewers since 3.88 million tuned in for UConn-Tennessee in January 1999, according to Sports Media Watch.
The game was the second-most watched college basketball game of the season, trailing only the 5.18 million who saw the Michigan State-Arizona men’s game that followed an NFL Thanksgiving game on Fox, SMW said.
Ohio State-Iowa surpassed the 3.01 million who watched the Boston Celtics’ 140-88 rout of the Golden State Warriors on ABC on Sunday.
USA-Canada is Most-Streamed Women’s Soccer Match Ever on Paramount+
CBS Sports’ coverage of the U.S. Women’s National Team’s dramatic penalty kick victory over Canada in the Concacaf W Gold Cup Semifinal on Wednesday is the most-streamed women’s soccer match ever on Paramount+.
FS1 Studio Shows Up Big in February
FS1’s First Things First, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, and Speak all extended their viewership growth streaks into February and posted their most-watched Februarys ever. The Herd posted a 2% growth year-over-year, making this the 15th consecutive month of growth. Speak was up 3% from 2023, marking the show’s 16th consecutive month of growth. First Things First posted a 17% viewership increase YoY, marking the show’s 18th straight month of double-digit viewership growth.
2024 NFL Scouting Combine Reaches Over 5 Million Viewers on NFL Network
Coverage of the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine presented by NOBULL on NFL Network reached a total unduplicated audience of over five million viewers across the four-day event.
On NFL Network and NFL+, Combine coverage averaged 251K viewers (TV+Digital), ranking as the most-watched Combine on NFL Network alone since 2018 and up +12% versus last year.
Saturday’s coverage of the quarterback, wide receiver and running back on-field drills averaged 399K viewers (TV+Digital) – ranking as NFL Network’s most-watched Combine Day 3 on record.
Additional Combine viewership highlights include:
- Thursday’s coverage of the defensive linemen and linebacker on-field drills averaged 185K viewers (TV+Digital) – up +23% versus last year.
- Friday’s coverage of the defensive back and tight end on-field drills averaged 175K viewers (TV+Digital) – up +7% versus last year.
NFL Network’s coverage of the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine featured host Rich Eisen and lead draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah in the broadcast booth, joined by Chris Rose, Charles Davis, Peter Schrager, Ian Rapoport, Stacey Dales and Jamie Erdahl.
LIV Golf Jeddah Opening Round Coverage Draws 2 Million Views on Caffeine in Unprecedented Debut
Professional golf made its debut on Caffeine the live broadcasting platform that specializes in discovery and content distribution for the next generation of live sports and community – with opening round coverage of this weekend’s 2024 LIV Golf Jeddah event. The broadcast, highlighted by Anthony Kim‘s long-awaited return to competitive golf after 12 years, captivated audiences, drawing over 2 million views to the platform’s Round 1 live-streaming coverage. Additional LIV Golf Jeddah content on the platform attracted another 2 million views, as fans tuned in throughout the weekend to watch full event highlights, athlete interviews, pre & post-show commentary, and more.
Friday’s coverage marked the inaugural event in Caffeine’s season-long partnership with LIV Golf, where it will continue to stream live opening round coverage for the remainder of the 2024 season. Additionally, viewers can enjoy on-demand highlights and a variety of original programs, including the Club 54 Pre-Round and Post-Round shows, the Fairway to Heaven podcast, Mic’d Up features, LIV Films, LIV Lessons, and more.
Caffeine is the go-to destination for more than 150+ niche sports leagues, competitive event organizers, content creators, and sports media publishers looking to reach and engage passionate fan bases at scale. Currently, the platform boasts over 60 million monthly active users, a massive 1,200% increase from 5 million a year prior, with 1.4 billion total views in 2023.
Global Audience of 62.5 Million Watched Super Bowl LVIII, An Increase of 10% Over 2023
A global TV audience of 62.5 million viewers watched the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII. The international viewership represents a 10% increase over 2023 as NFL fandom continues to grow around the globe.
Highlights of Super Bowl LVIII media consumption in international markets include:
- Mexico: Total audience reach of 24.1 million, with an average of 8.7 million viewers, up +5% year-on-year and the highest since records began. The audience peaked with over 10 million viewers during the Apple Music Halftime Show.
- Canada: Total audience reach of 18.8 million, with an average of 10.1 million viewers, up +16% year-on-year and the highest since tracking began — one of the top 5 most-watched English-language broadcasts on record in Canada. The audience peaked with over 12 million viewers during the Apple Music Halftime Show.
- Germany: Total audience reach of 3.8 million, averaging 1.9 million viewers, up +13% year-on-year.
- United Kingdom: Total audience reach of 3.7 million, averaging 1.2 million viewers, up +18% year-on-year.
- Australia: Total audience reach of nearly 3 million, averaging over 1.2 million viewers — the highest since records began and up +26% year-on-year.
- China: Most-watched Super Bowl in the last 7 years, featuring the first-ever Chinese New Year collaboration on Year of the Dragon during Super Bowl week.
- NFL Shop: Across NFL Shop sites in Europe, Canada and Mexico, total sales were up +39% year-on-year, compared to Super Bowl LVII.
- NFL Game Pass on DAZN: Viewership across Super Bowl LVIII week increased 61% year-on-year.
“The global interest in our game continues to grow rapidly, from fandom to participation, and the increase in international viewership underlines this,” said Peter O’Reilly, executive vice president, club business, major events & international at the NFL. “The Super Bowl is a moment that fuses sport and entertainment like nothing else, and Super Bowl LVIII was no exception, bringing together fans in every time zone around the world for a football and cultural spectacle. The global growth of the game is a major strategic focus for the league and the 32 teams, and we look forward to continued momentum in the coming years.”
In addition to viewership of Super Bowl LVIII, social media consumption on NFL channels across all international markets (Australia/New Zealand, Africa, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, MundoNFL and U.K.) showed significant increases in followers and engagement across Super Bowl LVIII.
Total followers across all international social channels now stand at over 17.9 million, increasing by over 1.3 million followers since last season. Nearly 20% of all new followers were added during the week of Super Bowl LVIII, and over 12 million engagements were seen across 2,400 pieces of content.
Super Bowl LVIII saw more than 50 in-market activations around the globe, including official NFL watch parties in seven key markets around the world in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Ghana, Mexico and the U.K., hosted by partners, broadcasters and clubs a part of the NFL’s Global Markets Program.
Additionally, The U.S. Department of State has collaborated with the NFL to host Super Bowl LVIII watch parties in over 30 locations in countries around the world.
Super Bowl LVIII was aired live in over 195 countries/territories via 80+ partners in over 25 languages.
In the United States, a custom survey from Nielsen and the NFL revealed that Super Bowl LVIII reached approximately 210 million viewers – nearly 2/3 of Americans – across CBS Television Network, Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Univision, and CBS Sports, Univision and NFL digital properties, including NFL+. The survey was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago using the AmeriSpeak panel.
According to Nielsen’s National panel measurement, Super Bowl LVIII was the most-watched television event of all time.
The total global viewership number is calculated using data from markets including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico and the U.K., plus available data from over 130 additional countries.
TNT’s ‘The Match’ Draws Lowest Viewership in Ninth Outing
According to SBJ, the ninth iteration of “The Match” was the least-watched version of the TNT Sports’ golf event, as TNT/truTV/HLN averaged 511,000 viewers. Monday night’s telecast from The Park in West Palm Beach featured Rory McIlroy, Max Homa, Rose Zhang and Lexi Thompson in the first mixed PGA Tour/LPGA competition for the event. The previous low came last June, when those networks averaged 782,000 viewers when the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes took on the Warriors’ Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. The event’s all-time high was the second event, which had 5.7 million when Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning took on Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady.
February 25ths Blue Jays-Yankees Telecast is YES’ 2nd Most-Viewed Spring Training Game Ever
- February 25th’s Blue Jays-Yankees linear telecast averaged 215,000 Total Viewers in the NY DMA, making it YES’ second-most-viewed Spring Training game ever
- The game peaked at 249,000 Total Viewers from 2:30-2:45 pm ET
- The game was also the YES App’s most-streamed Yankees Spring Training game ever
- The number of unique viewers for yesterday’s game on the YES App increased by 50% vs. last year’s Yankees Spring Training opener on the YES App
- Combining linear YES TV and YES App viewing of yesterday’s game, 43.5 million minutes were consumed
