UPDATE: Sunday’s NASCAR Daytona 500 averaged a 4.7 rating and 8.87 million viewers on FOX (8.88M across all platforms), marking the highest rated and most-watched edition of the race since 2019 (5.3, 9.17M).
Ratings jumped 68% and viewership 81% from last year’s all-time lows of 2.8 and 4.91 million and 7% and 21% respectively from two years ago (4.4, 7.33M). Keep in mind both of those races were severely affected by rain, the former finishing after Midnight ET (the latest ending in 500 history) and the latter primarily run on a Monday.
Despite the historically low numbers, Sunday’s race was the most-watched single network sportscast of the entire week — topping all of NBC’s primetime Olympics windows and the NBA All-Star Game. It dominated competing Olympics coverage head-to-head Sunday afternoon (1.4, 2.26M).
It was Sunday’s most-watched television program of the entire day and ranked second behind Turner’s NBA All-Star Game in 18-49 (1.5), 18-34 (0.9) and 25-54 (2.1).
ORIGINAL POST: Fox Sports says 8.8 million viewer watched Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500, the best performance for the race since 2019.
It was the second-most-streamed NASCAR event in Fox Sports history.
Sunday’s #Daytona500 on @FOXTV delivered the event’s highest viewership since 2019, peaking at more than 10,000,000 viewers.
Top 5 Markets:
Greensboro: 10.5/28
Tampa: 9.1/26
Greenville: 9.1/23
Indianapolis: 9.0/25
Orlando: 8.5/27 pic.twitter.com/5vLOB6cGGM— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) February 23, 2022
The Daytona 500 appears to be the most-viewed single sport telecast of the weekend, beating out @Olympics and @NBA All-Star.
➖ NASCAR notes that in 2019, the race did not go up against Olympics and that 2022 share, a slightly different metric than rating, was up 24% from 2019. pic.twitter.com/OrP7VgMpcr
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) February 23, 2022