The 2024 Formula 1 season reached nearly 30 million fans across ESPN platforms and concluded in a per-race average viewership tie with 2023 for the second most-viewed season ever on U.S. television, according to the network. Just over a million viewers watched the telecast of last Sunday’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on ESPN.
An average of 1.1 million viewers watched races across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC during the season, tying the 2023 season average for the second most-viewed season. The all-time record average of 1.2 million viewers was set in 2022. The reach of 29.5 million was up from 24 million last year.
The season included multiple viewership records, led by the Miami Grand Prix in early May, airing on ABC, setting the all-time U.S. television F1 record for a live telecast with 3.1 million average viewers.
In addition, seven races in the 2024 season set event viewership records (Miami, Monaco, Canada, British, Italian, Qatar, Abu Dhabi) and 11 races saw year-over-year viewership gains over 2023 (Japan, Miami, Monaco, Canada, Spain, British, Hungary, Dutch, Italian, Qatar, Abu Dhabi).
The Abu Dhabi race telecast, which started at 7:55am ET, peaked at 1.1 million viewers between 9:15-9:30am. The average viewership of 1 million for the race was up over the 927,000 average for last year’s event and surpassed the previous event record of 998,000 that was set in 2021.
The growth of F1 television audiences in the U.S. since the championship returned to ESPN platforms in 2018 continues, with average viewership essentially doubling from 554,000 in 2018 to 1.1 million in 2023 and ’24, a total increase of nearly 100 percent.
The 2025 F1 season begins March 16 in Australia.
