Venezuela’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) championship victory over the USA delivered a record average audience of 10.78 million viewers for Fox.
An average of 10.23 million and a peak of 12.15 million watched on Fox’s main English language over-the-air (OTA) network, with another 550,000 tuning on the Spanish-language network Fox Deportes.
The final easily surpassed the previous record audience for the tournament set by the semi-final between the US and the Dominican Republic, which averaged 7.37 million on the FS1 cable channel. The figure is also more than double the previous WBC final in 2023, which averaged 4.97 million on FS1 and Fox Deportes.
It is also comparable to Major League Baseball’s (MLB) World Series, with the final beating the average viewership for the five-game 2023 World Series.
This year’s WBC as a whole was a major draw for Fox, delivering five of the six largest audiences in the event’s history. Overall, the tournament averaged 1.29 million viewers across Fox’s network of channels, which was up 156 per cent on the 2023 edition. It ranks as the most watched WBC ever across English language networks.
NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympics set a new audience record for the event in the US (Image credit: Getty Images)
Milan-Cortina 2026 becomes most watched Winter Paralympics in the US on record
The Milan-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games were the most watched Winter Paralympics ever in the US, with NBCUniversal gaining 22.7 million total viewers across its linear networks NBCUSA Network and CNBC.
Total viewership is up 90 per cent on the previous event in Beijing four years ago. It is also 47 per cent higher than the Paris 2024 Paralympic Summer Games, which totalled 15.4 million viewers.
In addition to a record linear audience, the Games averaged a total audience delivery (TAD) of 1.1 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, which was up 24 per cent on the 2022 Winter Paralympics. A total of 99.4 million minutes was streamed of the competition on digital platforms, which was five times the streaming viewership for Beijing.
A primetime broadcast covering the event on NBC and Peacock averaged 1.4 million viewers on 7th March, which became the most watched Winter Paralympic Games broadcast on record. Other highlights also included the sled hockey gold medal game, with the US victory averaging a TAD of 1.2 million viewers on NBC, Peacock and CNBC.
“With Winter Paralympic viewership almost doubling since Beijing 2022, it’s undeniable that the Paralympic movement is growing at a rapid pace,” said Gary Zenkel, president, NBC Olympics.
“We’re honoured to give these incredible athletes and stories a national platform and understand the seismic impact the LA28 Games will have on para sports both in the US and globally.”
The roundup:
- US men’s college basketball games averaged 433,000 viewers on linear television during the 2025/26 regular season, an increase of 19 per cent year-over-year (YoY). The most watched game was Duke’s Thanksgiving win over Arkansas on CBS, which averaged 6.81 million viewers. CBS also pulled the largest audience of any network, averaging 1.59 million.
- Meanwhile, women’s college basketball games averaged 238,000 viewers, an increase of two per cent YoY. ABC’s coverage of South Carolina-LSU drew the largest audience with 1.7 million viewers last month, while Fox delivered an average viewership of 700,000 throughout the campaign.
- The final round of the Players Championship averaged 4.4 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, becoming the golf tournament’s largest final round audience since 2021. Viewership for Cameron Young’s win peaked at 7.1 million.
- France’s Six Nations win over England in the tournament’s last game was watched by eight million on France Televisions and 3.9 million on UK broadcaster ITV.
- IndyCar averaged 1.34 million viewers for the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington on Fox, ensuring the series is averaging more than one million viewers for its first three races this season.
- Nascar averaged 2.77 million viewers on FS1 for the Cup Series race in Las Vegas, an 8.6 per cent decrease on last year’s audience.
As platforms multiply, audiences fragment and media rights deals plateau, it’s time to understand what’s really going on in sports media. Join us at SportsPro London this April to learn more.
