Sports broadcasting giant ESPN’s coverage of this year’s US Open was the most-viewed edition of the tennis grand slam in the country since 2022, while the network achieved double-digit growth throughout all rounds.
The 15-day tournament, held between August 24 and September 7, was also the most-watched tennis broadcast of the year, with the men’s singles final posting the highest viewership in a decade and ESPN’s second most-viewed on record.
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The men’s final, in which Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz defeated Italy’s Jannik Sinner – the third straight grand slam final meeting between the pair this year after the French Open and Wimbledon – averaged 3 million viewers on ABC, up 82% from the 2024 final.
The women’s final, meanwhile, averaged 2.4 million on ESPN, up 50% from last year, as Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka beat American Amanda Anisimova to win her second US Open.
The men’s (up 37%) and women’s (up 62%) semi-finals each attracted 8 million viewers on ESPN.
The quarter-finals drew their largest audience in 10 years, and early round coverage through the round of 16 on ESPN posted its best numbers since 2022.
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By GlobalDataThe new Sunday start also proved to be a big draw, with ESPN delivering its most-viewed opening day coverage since 2022, with audiences up nearly 83% year over year.
More audience highlights saw 5 million viewers watch the round of 16 on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2, making it the most-viewed since 2019. It was also ABC’s most-watched US Open round of 16 broadcast since 2015.
Yesterday, media giant Warner Bros. Discovery also revealed impressive viewing numbers for its US Open coverage across Europe.
In total, the Eurosport 1 linear channel grew its US Open audience by 32% from 2024, as it broadcast the tournament exclusively to 45 countries across the continent.
Eurosport provided 260 hours of live coverage in total from the hard-court slam, with Romania (50%) and the Netherlands (27%) two of the markets that recorded the most significant year-on-year growth in viewing numbers.
