Fox Sports earned a combined 0.81 rating and 1.33M viewers for Sunday’s Pro Series Invitational that was simulcast on Fox and FS1, breaking last week’s record for the most-viewed esports event in U.S. linear TV history.
NASCAR started the multirace exhibition series two weeks ago to give its fans something to watch and its drivers something to do amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) shutdown.
But the series has now turned into a boon for NASCAR’s esports efforts, and the event viewership reached a new height Sunday.
The metrics, first reported this morning by ShowBuzzDaily, indicate that the event earned 355K viewers in the 18-49 demo, and that the race was the second most-viewed sports related event of the weekend after a 1.45 rating and 2.36M viewers for WWE’s “Friday Night Smackdown” on Fox.
The inaugural NASCAR esports event two weeks ago was only aired on FS1 and that earned a 0.53 rating and 903K viewers. While this past weekend’s race was technically simulcast on Fox and FS1 for the first time, it was not picked up by several Fox affiliates across the country including in the NASCAR hotbed of Charlotte.
Meanwhile, NASCAR also has been working with IMG on distributing the Pro Invitational Series globally, saying that it can now be seen in 165 countries and territories across 25 broadcast networks and 400M TV homes.
Full numbers from Fox and Nielsen are expected to be released later today.
