Despite some early round upsets that saw several marquee players make early exits, Wimbledon viewership hit multi-year highs for ESPN.
According to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, Wimbledon telecasts averaged 721,000 viewers across ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC, up 6% versus last year’s average audience and the highest tournament average since 2019 when both Roger Federer and Serena Williams made the finals. It’s the fourth-highest audience ESPN has earned for Wimbledon since it began exclusively airing the tournament in 2012.
Sunday’s men’s singles final between No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner and No. 2 seed Carlos Alcaraz averaged 3.2 million viewers on ESPN, up 26% versus last year’s final between Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. Notably, the match drew a far larger audience than the five-set thriller between Sinner and Alcaraz in the French Open last month (1.8 million viewers).
Saturday’s women’s singles final, which saw Iga Swiatek “double bagel” American upstart Amanda Anisimova, notched 1.9 million viewers, up 18% versus last year’s final between Barbora Krejčíková and Jasmine Paolini.
Per Lewis, nearly every round other than the singles finals saw multi-year highs for ESPN. The network had its most-watched semifinals since 2019, averaging 1.1 million viewers, and also hit a six-year high for the quarterfinals, which averaged 488,000 viewers. Day 1 was the most-watched on record.
The singles finals’ move from a 9 a.m. ET start to an 11 a.m. ET start may have contributed to the larger audiences. No doubt, more West Coast viewers were able to tune into the later starts than in previous years.
Wimbledon continues to set the high watermark for Grand Slam viewership in the United States. While the US Open often notches comparable audiences in the early rounds, its direct competition with Week 1 of the NFL season during the singles finals has hamstrung its ability to draw large audiences for the most important match. Last year’s men’s final, for instance, drew just 1.8 million viewers.
Given how many big names took early losses in this year’s Wimbledon draw, ESPN has to be pleased with the tournament’s viewership resilience.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.