Viewership figures from this past weekend in golf show a clear preference among fans for the PGA Tour over LIV Golf. Sunday’s final round telecast of the PGA Tour’s Players Championship on NBC attracted 3.6 million viewers, a 3% increase from last year’s figure of 3.5 million. In stark contrast, LIV Golf’s finale in Singapore managed to garner just 34,000 viewers on FS1, marking a dramatic gap in audience engagement.
Ratings! Players Championship on Sunday on NBC: 3.6M, up from 3.5M for last year’s final round.
Prior two years: 4.1M (Scheffler) and 2.9M (weather, Smith)
Peak audience for Sunday was at 7pm: 6.2M, up from 6M last year.
Weekend average just over 3M pic.twitter.com/V8mlYCXoeG
— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) March 18, 2025
While the Players Championship, which featured an exciting playoff between Rory McIlroy and JJ Spaun, aired during the day on a major broadcast network, LIV Golf’s Singapore event took place late at night on a cable channel. The marked difference in viewership is evident: for every viewer of LIV Singapore, 100 tuned into the Players Championship. This disparity is particularly striking for a sport often viewed as niche.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that audiences are not reluctant to watch live sports late at night. On the same Saturday when LIV Singapore aired, the Formula One Australian Grand Prix attracted 1.1 million viewers on ESPN, despite starting even later than LIV’s event.
FWIW: ESPN had the F1 Australian Grand Prix (season opener) starting at 11:55pm ET Saturday, and that got 1.1 million viewers. https://t.co/dx5mjopi6j
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) March 18, 2025
The PGA Tour’s Players Championship exemplifies a resurgence in ratings, with the last seven tournaments showcasing year-over-year viewership increases in their final rounds. This follows a challenging last season marked by numerous weather-dominated rounds that negatively impacted viewership. In light of these trends, it appears one of golf’s major tours is thriving while the other remains in relative anonymity. The potential for a reunification of the tours remains uncertain, but clearly, interest in the likes of Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, and Brooks Koepka outside of major championships may be limited this year.
