Ratings roundup: 2025 Ryder Cup sets new viewership record for Sky as US ratings suffer

The 2025 Ryder Cup drew record viewership for UK broadcaster Sky Sports, with five million viewers tuning in across the three-day golf tournament.

Average viewership was up by 45 per cent compared to the last edition in 2023, with one in four television viewers watching the end of the final day’s action. More than 40 per cent of the audiences was aged 35 and under.

The peak audience was the highest ever for any golf event ever on Sky Sports,  surpassing Rory McIlroy’s Masters victory earlier this year and the 2012 Ryder Cup.

The broadcaster’s social channels earned 55 million total views across all platforms, which was up 66 per cent on 2023. Additionally, there were 12.4 million page views during the week for Ryder Cup content on the Sky Sports app and website.

In total, Sky Sports accrued 8.8 million viewers across the weekend, which made it the most watched in its history. As well as showing the Ryder Cup, it featured the Premier League, the National Football League (NFL) and the Women’s Super League (WSL) on its channels.

Meanwhile, NBC and Peacock’s coverage of the final Ryder Cup day averaged 3.22 million viewers, with its coverage peaking at 5.3 million. This was the least viewed final day for a Ryder Cup staged in the US in the 21st century, but was a major uplift on the 1.31 million viewers NBC averaged for the final day of the 2023 event held in Rome.

MLB continues viewership surge in 2025

Major League Baseball’s (MLB) renaissance continues, with most of its broadcast partners seeing a double-digit percentage increase across the 2025 regular season.

Fox delivered its most watched season since 2022, with an average of 2.04 million viewers for its broadcasts, up nine per cent year-over-year (YoY). Its FS1 channel also had its most watched season in six years, averaging 324,000 viewers for its non-exclusive games.

Meanwhile, ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast averaged 1.8 million viewers, which was a 21 per cent jump on the previous year. This was ESPN’s best season in 12 years for viewership, marking a strong finish for the Disney-owned network as it prepares to bid farewell to the Sunday Night Baseball package. NBC is reportedly the frontrunner to inherit Sunday Night Baseball, while ESPN has been linked with a new package with greater local inventory. 

Warner Bros Discovery’s (WBD) TBS network drew its largest viewership in 14 years, averaging 462,000 viewers for its non-exclusive games. This was a 29 per cent increase on the previous campaign. MLB Network, the league’s in-house cable channel, also gained its most watched regular season for game coverage since 2018, averaging 261,000 viewers for its out-of-market ‘Showcase’ broadcast.

The growth in viewership was also experienced by regional sports networks (RSNs), with MLB noting it saw a two per cent rise in audiences for local broadcasts.

FanDuel Sports Network, the RSN operator that shows games from nine franchises, averaged 1.5 million daily viewers across its linear and digital platforms. This represented an 18 per cent increase on the 2024 season, with more than 2.8 billion minutes streamed on its streaming app, and a 16 per cent rise recorded for household linear viewing.

Outside of the US, Canadian broadcaster Sportsnet averaged 906,800 viewers for Toronto Blue Jays games, up 51 per cent on last year. In Japan, the league continues to grow its popularity, with NHK averaging 2.65 million viewers for games, a 20 per cent rise on the previous campaign.

The roundup:

• NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcast led all NFL games for its fourth weekend this season. The tie between the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys averaged 26.9 million viewers, and peaked at 29.9 million. Sunday Night Football is averaging 25.5 million viewers this season so far on NBC and Peacock, marking its best four-week start in its 20-year history.
• Alabama’s win over Georgia led all college football games in the season’s fifth weekend, with ABC recording an average of 10.4 million viewers and a peak of 13 million.
• The first round of the WNBA playoffs was the second-most watched ever for ESPN. The round averaged 943,000 viewers on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, and only trails last year’s edition.
• Nascar averaged 1.49 million viewers for its Cup Series playoff race at Kansas Speedway on USA Network. This was a 26 per cent YoY decline on last year’s race, which was also shown by the Versant-owned network.
• The Women’s Rugby World Cup final peaked at 5.8 million viewers on the BBC, becoming the most watched women’s rugby union game ever in the UK.
• The Australian Football League (AFL) grand final averaged 4.08 million viewers on the free-to-air (FTA) Seven Network, and achieved a total audience reach of 6.1 million. The Brisbane Lions’ win became the most watched Australian TV programme in 2025, and also recorded 969,000 streams on 7plus Sport. Seven’s coverage of the finals series in total reached 8.7 million fans, while its broadcasts over the entire season reached 17.4 million.
• The Ligue 1 game between PSG and Marseille on 22^nd September averaged 1.2 million viewers, and peaked at 1.4 million viewers on the DTC Ligue 1+ streaming service.

SOURCE: https://www.sportspro.com/news/ryder-cup-2025-sky-nbc-viewership-mlb-fox-espn-tbs-october-2025/