The Sports Business Journal shared last weekend’s estimated LIV Golf Mayakoba, PGA Tour Honda Classic viewership. Early reports did not paint a positive picture for the rival circuit.
LIV Golf shared new numbers Friday morning that tell a completely different story.
The upstart circuit, which is financially supported by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, reported a audience of 3.2million viewers on all digital and linear platforms. This was for the season-opening event held in Mexico. LIV now airs in all U.S. markets via CW affiliates or Nexstar stations. It reported 1.6 million viewers Saturday and 1.3million viewers Sunday.
LIV also reported that the average linear viewership in the United States was more than 537,000. This is higher than the current season average viewership of the MLS (3433,000), NHL (3373,000), and the Australian Open men’s final (4439,000).
Although it’s easy for people to laugh at some of the programming on the CW and LIV, the broadcasting of LIV in all U.S. markets was crucial to its growth in 2023. Although the numbers may be accurate, they are still a step in the right direction. Let’s not forget that this was LIV’s first event. Its viewership is comparable to that of three of America’s least-watched major sporting events.
Nielsen reports that the CW’s weekend primetime ratings rose 24% compared with its average weekend season-to date. LIV reported a 40% increase in monthly downloads of its CW app and 350,000 views for LIV Golf Plus, Friday’s first round being only available via live streaming.
The short version is that more people watched the opening ceremony than ever before. LIV must keep them on the lookout.
