The Premier League continues to grow in the US, maintaining an average audience of 500,000+, for a fourth consecutive year, but NBC Sports’ average viewership dropped to its lowest in three years.
Revealing the performance of its coverage of the 2024/25 Premier League season on May 29, NBC Sports averaged an audience viewership of 510,000 per televised match. This is lower than the record-setting average of 546,000 last season, and the 527,000 averaged during the 2022/23 season, falling 6.5% and 3.2% respectively.
Despite average viewership dropping slightly, NBC reported that the recent 2024/25 season was the second most-watched Premier League campaign ever, with 12 matches averaging at least one million viewers, tied for the second most in NBC’s 12-year broadcast history of the league.
Of the most watched games of the season, the opening weekend fixture between Chelsea and Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on 18 August 2024 was the most watched fixture of the season with 1.8 million viewers.
Furthermore, across all NBCUniversal platforms, including streaming platform Peacock, the Premier League drew 17.14 billion minutes of consumption, the second most in NBC’s history of the English top-flight league.
Digital continues to show value
Peacock has proven vital for NBCUniversal over the last several years for being able to attract younger, digital-native audiences to its platform and content.
The streaming service was able to continue its Premier League for its fifth season, averaging more than 800,000 viewers for televised games. Peacock garnered more than 4 billion minutes of Premier League games showcased on the platform.
The February 2 2025 fixture between Arsenal and Manchester United was the most streamed game from the season on Peacock, averaging a minute audience of one million viewers.
Much like many leagues across the US and the rest of the world, social media and digital engagements are quickly becoming a more important barometer of outlining the performance of a season.
For NBC Sports, its Premier League coverage on its social media platforms hit record consumption, with impressions increasing 15% from last season, and 33% from the 2022/23 season.
Video content on social media also grew by 34% from last year and a seismic 143% from the 2022/23 campaign. On the NBC Sports YouTube channel, the season finished with more than 180 million views and over 1.2 billion of accumulated views.
Why the dip in avg. viewership?
There is no doubt that soccer within the US is on an upward growth trajectory, with Premier League interest growing, Lionel Messi’s presence in MLS growing the domestic league and excitement building for next year’s 2026 FIFA World Cup co-held in the US.
While the average viewership drop is only marginal, the most recent Premier League campaign can be viewed as less exciting than the previous two seasons.
This is due to Premier League champions securing the title with four weeks remaining, the earliest title victory in five years. This is due to three out of four Manchester City’s consecutive Premier League titles (2021-2024) coming down to either the final game of the season, or within the final three games.
A tight title race has demonstrated that it draws in the attention of the US population the most. The most-watched Premier League fixture ever on NBC Sports was last season, between Manchester City and Arsenal in a 0-0 draw. Both teams were competing for the title and ultimately came down to the final game of the 2023/24 season, when City were eventual champions.
Despite the lack of title race during the 2024/25 season, there was a battle for Champions League qualification that was settled on the final day of the season.
Manchester City, Chelsea and Newcastle United ultimately secured qualification in third, fourth and fifth respectively, but not without competition from Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest.
