Monaco GP records third-highest US F1 audience ever with 2.3m viewers on ABC

Last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix averaged 2.3 million viewers for the race-only telecast on ABC.

Confirmed:

• This is the third-largest US audience for Formula One ever, behind the 2024 Miami Grand Prix (3.1 million) and the 2022 Miami Grand Prix (2.6 million)
• Viewership increases 17 per cent year-over-year (YoY) from last season’s audience of 1.97 million
• Average of 917,000 viewers in the key 18-49 demographic

Context:

In a direct race-to-race viewership comparison, this is now the best start to a Formula One season ever in the US. The average of 1.35 million through the eight Grands Prix that have featured so far beats the previous high of 1.27 million in 2022 for the same races. But year-to-date (YTD) viewership doesn’t quite exceed the figure from 2023 (1.38 million).

YTD viewership is a tricky statistic for Formula One in the US as the order of races often dictates how well the series is tracking compared to previous seasons. For example, this year began with a trio of races that aired in the middle of the night in the US: Australia, Japan, and China. Last season is the only other year which offers a fair comparison with that proportion of late-night races, and that could only manage an average of 1.2 million viewers.

Coming next:

Formula One will hope its good momentum with viewership in the US continues at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. The series has averaged at least one million viewers for five straight races, so it looks well placed to beat last year’s record of nine straight races which began with the Monaco Grand Prix.

Go deeper:

• F1 viewership analysis: Has the series cracked the US TV market?
• F1 2024 in numbers: Consistent viewership, strong attendances, and a boom in commercial partnerships