Viewership figures overview: Fever-Aces, European Championship, racing, baseball

The Caitlin Clark The effect continues as once again a WNBA game has surpassed the one million viewer mark. Plus: more profits for Euro 2024; and weekend figures for auto racing, baseball, golf and more.

Fever-Aces final WNBA game crosses million mark

Tuesday’s Fever-Aces regular season game drew an average of 1.45 million viewers on ESPN. It’s the 11th game this season to top the million-viewer mark. That’s the most in a WNBA season since 2002. No WNBA game has averaged a seven-figure audience since 2008.

The Aces’ win, which peaked at 1.71 million viewers in the 10 p.m. ET quarter, ranks eighth of the season in ratings. Caitlin Clark and the Fever have played in the top eight and 10 of the WNBA’s top 11 games this season.

Fever Aces was the most popular program on cable television that night among all key adult and male demographics.

Euro 2024 viewing figures continue to rise

Monday’s Portugal-Slovenia Euro 2024 round of 16 match drew an average of 2.19 million viewers on FOX, up 14% from ESPN’s 2021 France-Switzerland match (1.92 million). Portugal’s win peaked at 3.07 million in the 5:30 p.m. ET quarter. Miami-Ft. Lauderdale was the top market with a 3.0 rating and 14 share, followed by San Diego (2.4/16) and Providence, R.I. (2.3/9).

Earlier in the day, France-Belgium averaged 1.67 million viewers, up 47% from Croatia-Spain in ’21 (1.14 million). Viewers peaked at 2.28 million in the 1:30 quarter hour.

The full Round of 16 was averaging 2.19M through Monday, up 28% from the same point in ’21 (1.71M). The full tournament is averaging 1.24M across the Fox networks, up 31% from ’21, with the caveat that this year’s average excludes five matches that were sublicensed to streaming service Fubo.

NASCAR up slightly in Nashville despite weather; F1 Austria nears peak

Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Nashville averaged 3.24 million viewers on NBC (3.3 million including additional streaming data measured by Adobe Analytics), up slightly from last year’s 3.21 million. The race was impacted by weather delays and ultimately concluded on USA Network.

Earlier in the day, the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix averaged 1.08 million viewers on ESPN — behind only last year’s 1.09 million for the race’s highest viewership. Viewership peaked at 1.34 million in the 10:15 a.m. quarter.

Plus: MLB, PGA Tour, UFC

— Regional Major League Baseball action on FOX averaged 2.47 million viewers on Saturday night, up from 1.76 million the same weekend last year. ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball (Rangers-Orioles) drew 1.22 million viewers, down from a combined 1.42 million for Giants-Dodgers on ESPN and ESPN2 last year. For the second straight week, Sunday Night Baseball trailed WNBA action on ESPN earlier in the afternoon (with the obvious caveat that both WNBA games featured Caitlin Clark).

— The final round of the PGA Tour Rocket Mortgage Classic averaged 2.47 million viewers on CBS Sunday, up 1 percent from last year’s 2.45 million. The third round drew 1.40 million viewers, up a third from last year’s 1.06 million.

— The UFC 203 prelims averaged 1.06 million viewers on ESPN on Saturday night, besting the previous two PPV prelims and now the most-watched bout since UFC 300 in April (1.86 million).