Ratings Roundup: Over 17 Million Tune in For Packers-Lions on Prime TNF; F1 Hits Nearly 30 Million Viewers on ESPN Platforms

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, MLS Cup linear audience is down by nearly half; FOX secures most viewed Mountain West Championship ever; and more .

TNF on Prime Shatters All-Time Audience Records with 17.29M for Packers-Lions

According to Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement for Thursday’s Packers-Lions TNF game on Prime Video, which updated the event’s average audience to 18.48 million viewers (P2+ AMA). Packers-Lions stands as the most-watched TNF on Prime event on record, eclipsing the previous all-time high of 17.61M for Cowboys-Giants on 9/26/24.

This comes on the heels of a +41% year-over-year jump for Black Friday Football. Season to date, the 2024 TNF on Prime campaign is averaging 14.68 million viewers (P2+) in Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement.

MLS Cup Linear Audience Down Nearly 50%

The LA Galaxy’s MLS Cup victory over the New York Red Bulls on Saturday drew an average of 468,000 total viewers across Fox and Fox Deportes, down 47% from the combined linear audience of 890,000 for last year’s championship match across the same channels. The 2023 edition featured the Columbus Crew defeating LAFC and also aired Saturday at 4pm ET.

MLS Cup was also available for free globally via the MLS Season Pass streaming service on Apple TV, which is not Nielsen rated. Apple and MLS also do not reveal internal viewership data for matches on Season Pass. This past season was the league’s second under a 10-year, $2.5B media rights deal with Apple.

Bengals and Cowboys Draw 18.7 Million Viewers on ESPN’s Monday Night Football

ESPN’s Monday Night Football matchup featuring the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys (8:15 p.m., December 9, 2024), drew 18.7 million viewers across Nielsen-rated telecasts on ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN+ and ESPN Deportes. The viewership peaked at 20.2 million viewers late in the first half and marked it as a most-watched MNF Week 14 game in ESPN era.

MNF on ESPN with Peyton & Eli hits 900k viewers

Formula 1 Telecasts on ESPN Platforms Reach Nearly 30 Million Fans in 2024

The 2024 Formula 1 World Championship season reached nearly 30 million fans across ESPN platforms and concluded in a per-race average viewership tie with 2023 for the second most-viewed season ever on U.S. television. Just over 1 million viewers watched the telecast of Sunday’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on ESPN.

An average of 1.1 million viewers watched races across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC during the season, tying the 2023 season average for the second most-viewed season. The all-time record average of 1.2 million viewers was set in 2022. The reach of 29.5 million was up from 24 million last year.

The season included multiple viewership records, led by the Miami Grand Prix in early May, airing on ABC, setting the all-time U.S. television F1 record for a live telecast with 3.1 million average viewers.

In addition, seven races in the 2024 season set event viewership records (Miami, Monaco, Canada, British, Italian, Qatar, Abu Dhabi) and 11 races saw year-over-year viewership gains over 2023 (Japan, Miami, Monaco, Canada, Spain, British, Hungary, Dutch, Italian, Qatar, Abu Dhabi).

The Abu Dhabi race telecast, which started at 7:55 a.m. ET, peaked at 1.1 million viewers between 9:15-9:30 a.m. The average viewership of 1 million for the race was up over the 927,000 average for last year’s event and surpassed the previous event record of 998,000 that was set in 2021.

The growth of Formula 1 television audiences in the United States since the championship returned to ESPN platforms in 2018 remains a sports success story. Average viewership has essentially doubled from 554K in 2018 to 1.1 million in 2023 and 2024, a total increase of nearly 100 percent.

The 2025 F1 season begins March 16 in Australia.

America’s Game of the Week is the Most-Watched Telecast of the Week on Any Network

• 24 million viewers tuned in for Sunday’s down-to-the-wire finish as the Los Angeles Rams defeated the Buffalo Bills
  • Most-watched telecast of the week on any network
  • Season-to-date AGOTW is averaging 25.1 million viewers, up +5% over last year and its best showing since 2016

FOX Scores Most-Watched Mountain West Championship Ever

• 3.01 million viewers on FOX
  • Most-watched Mountain West Championship on any network in history