According to a report in the Sports Business Journal, it was the NFL that dominated the top 100 most-watched sports telecasts in the US, with golf not even cracking the top 130 in 2023.
In the piece, it is reported that 96 of the top 100-watched broadcasts are NFL-related, with the Super Bowl, unsurprisingly, top of the tree with 114.3 million. The only non NFL-related telecasts came from the college sector, with Ohio State-Michigan, Alabama-Georgia in the SEC Championship and the Georgia-TCU CFP title game to conclude last season amongst the 100.
In the case of golf, it was reported by Sports Business Journal's, Josh Carpenter, that golf's most viewed event was the final round of The Masters, which drew 12.1 million viewers on Sunday. This put the April event in the 131st spot in the rankings, which was 3 million behind the 100th spot - Thursday Night Football: Vikings-Eagles.
Back in October, at the Ryder Cup, US viewing figures for NBC’s coverage of Singles Sunday dropped by more than a million compared to 2018, with 1.414 million tuning in during Saturday afternoon's action, compared to 1.315 million over the course of the final day’s play.
Over in the UK though, Sky Sports reported record viewing numbers for a single Ryder Cup. The British broadcaster said the 2023 event was the most-watched edition ever thanks to an average of 785,000 fans tuning in during Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, up 38% from Whistling Straits in 2021 and 25% from Le Golf National in 2018.
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It wasn't just golf where Sky have picked up record viewing figures. During the early part of 2024, teenage darts sensation Luke Littler’s semi final victory at the World Darts Championship attracted more viewers than the Ryder Cup, according to sports promoter, Eddie Hearn.
Hearn tweeted that the semi final match earned an audience of 2.32 million, beating the previous record for a darts match between Phil Taylor and Gary Anderson in 2015 which attracted 1.65 million.
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