Crowd pleasers: Cup, Xfinity Series gained viewers
STAMFORD, Conn. — NBC Sports once again produced a number of viewership milestones for its 2021 NASCAR coverage, including year-over-year viewership increases for both the Cup and Xfinity Series and NBC Sports’ most-streamed seasons for both series on record. NBC Sports’ 2021 NASCAR Cup Series viewership across NBC and NBCSN produced a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 2.562 million viewers, according to Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics, slightly up vs. viewership for the comparable races on NBC and NBCSN in 2020 (2.560 million viewers), excluding weather-impacted races.
The Cup Series season was capped by Kyle Larson’s first-career championship at Phoenix Raceway on NBC, which produced a TAD of 3.274 million viewers (1.95 Household (HH) rating, 3.214 million TV-only), up 6% from last season’s championship race on NBC (3.093 million viewers) to rank as the most-watched fall Phoenix race since 2018.
Additional Cup Series viewership highlights
• More than half (11 of 20) of the race windows saw year-over-year viewership gains 2020, including six consecutive races from Michigan on August 22 to Las Vegas on Sept. 26.
• Indianapolis, on Aug. 15 on NBC, and Michigan, on NBCSN, were the highest-rated sports events of their respective weekends.
• Indianapolis, Michigan, Road America, on July 4 on NBC, and Daytona, on Aug. 28 on NBC, made NBC/NBCSN the most-watched TV network during their window.
The 2021 Cup Series also featured the first-ever simul-streamed races on Peacock (Texas, Martinsville and Phoenix) and delivered NBC Sports’ most-streamed NASCAR season record in terms of Average Minute Audience (30,000 viewers) and total minutes (109 million minutes). The Phoenix Cup and Xfinity Series races rank as NBC Sports’ most-streamed NASCAR races on record.
Knoxville led all markets for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series on NBC and NBCSN with a 5.3 local rating, followed by Greenville-Spartanburg (4.6) and Greensboro-High Point (4.2).