#sports-viewership

#sports-viewership

The 2026 Formula 1 season on Apple TV is off to a strong start, with fans responding positively and viewership up year over year for the first weekend, exceeding both F1 and Apple expectations. Apple didn't give any ratings or other details, but we can glean some clues from previous data. Last year, ESPN said the Australian GP averaged 1.1 million viewers, way up from the previous record of 659,000 in 2019.

It's so exciting to see. It's so reassuring, so validating. We're always surprised, but we're not surprised. It's very obvious that the voice economy is very strong in women's basketball. The league is based in Miami in a venue with a roughly 1,000-seat capacity, so the tour stops this season made seeing Unrivaled talent more accessible for fans.

The 2026 World Series smashed ratings expectations across the board, and Game 7 was the most-watched baseball game in 34 years. And note that the ratings success was not merely a function of expanded Canadian and Japanese audiences. In the US alone, 16.1 million people watched each game on average, which was an increase over last year's ratings dream of a matchup between the Yankees and Dodgers, and trounced the 2025 NBA Finals average viewership of 10.3 million.

There was not a single place that didn't have the Al-Hilal game on, and everyone was off the streets and watching it. The freeway was so empty. On a Friday night, that never happens, not even during Ramadan.