NBC earns most-watched Kentucky Derby on record

For the second consecutive year, NBC earned a record-setting audience for the Kentucky Derby.

On Sunday, NBC announced preliminary data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics indicates 19.6 million viewers tuned in for the race portion of the 152nd Kentucky Derby, which would make it the most-watched Derby on record. The figure is up 12% versus last year’s race, which averaged 17.7 million viewers for Sovereignty’s win and was the most-watched Kentucky Derby since 1989.

Golden Tempo’s unbelievable kick to win by a nose over the morning-line favorite Renegade peaked at 24.4 million viewers in the 7 p.m. ET quarter-hour when the race took place. The peak audience increased by 12% versus last year, when 21.8 million viewers tuned in for the quarter-hour the race was run.

It is important to note, this is the first Kentucky Derby to be measured with Nielsen’s new Big Data + Panel methodology, and just the second to be measured with Nielsen’s expanded out-of-home viewing sample. Both changes have tended to increase viewership figures for live sports compared to prior years. It’s quite likely that the 1989 Kentucky Derby, which averaged 18.5 million viewers, would’ve eclipsed this year’s audience using modern measurement standards.

Perhaps other recent editions of the Kentucky Derby could’ve also approached this year’s viewership figure all things being equal, though it’s difficult to say if any of those races would’ve surpassed Saturday’s audience. Maximum Security’s infamous rescinded win in 2019, for instance, averaged 16.5 million viewers before the inclusion of out-of-home viewing by Nielsen. Several other Kentucky Derby audiences since 2010 have also eclipsed 16 million viewers.

Given what we know about out-of-home viewing, it is reasonable to believe that the Kentucky Derby, an early-evening weekend event that is primed for large gatherings or passive viewing in a commercial establishment, is uniquely positioned to benefit from out-of-home viewing, even more so than other live sporting events.

NBC was also lifted by its largest-ever streaming audience for the Derby, with Peacock chipping in 1.3 million viewers per Adobe Analytics, up from 959,000 viewers in 2025.

On Friday night, the first-ever primetime presentation of the Kentucky Oaks averaged 2.4 million viewers across NBC and Peacock. The telecast blew away the previous Kentucky Oaks viewership record, 593,000 viewers for ESPN’s presentation in 1997. The Kentucky Oaks averaged just 304,000 viewers on USA Network across the past three years.

Regardless of viewership-measurement caveats, an audience approaching 20 million viewers is an incredible feat in the context of modern sports viewership. Saturday’s Derby audience would’ve eclipsed every World Series game since 2019 aside from last year’s Game 7 between the Dodgers and Blue Jays, and every NBA Finals game since 2017. Of course, comparing the window for a horse racing telecast, which is typically around one hour, to MLB or NBA telecasts that last in the neighborhood of three hours, is apples-to-oranges.

Still, it gives an idea for the magnitude of a Kentucky Derby audience. There are few viewership events on par with the Kentucky Derby, particularly when excluding football. NBC will continue to enjoy the fruits of the Derby’s popularity through at least 2032, when its current media rights agreement with Churchill Downs expires.