Formula 1’s TV and digital audiences grow for the second year running

490 million unique viewers watched F1 in 2018. The USA was up 20% on ESPN2 vs. NBCSN the years before

Formula 1 has registered a significant increase in its audience figures during the 2018 season, across both digital and TV platforms, compared to the previous year.

In terms of unique viewers, during 2018 the sport once again had an improvement globally (+10%), reaching 490.2m. This increment is even higher in the top 20 markets* (+14%). China, who benefited from the return to CCTV as the main free-to-air broadcaster, increased its reach more than three times since 2017. Other markets with a very significant increase included: Indian subcontinent (+87%), France (+51%), Russia (+27%) and USA (20%). Brazil (115.2m viewers), China (68m) and USA (34.2m) are the top three markets in terms of TV reach.

The TV cumulative audience in the top 20 markets** (based in ranking of TV audience) stood at 1.59b, which represents an increase of 3% compared to 2017. This is the second consecutive year of growth. The global cumulative audience reached 1.758bn.

Once again, the top three markets by cumulative audience are Brazil, Germany and Italy. China (+69%), France (+40%), Indonesia (+25%) and Brazil (+20%) were the countries with the highest improvement among the top 20 market.

The Monaco Grand Prix had the highest cumulative audience of the season with 110m viewers (+10% year on year). Six events also had more than 90m viewers: Bahrain, France, Austria, Great Britain, Italy and Mexico.

In 2018 the number of users across Formula 1’s social media platforms also grew significantly, with the total number of followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube reaching 18.5m (+53.7 compared to 2017), confirming Formula 1 as the fastest growing major sport on social media platforms.

The average number of unique users per race week was 11.1% higher than the previous year, with more and more content being viewed. Total impressions grew up by 29.2% (10.4bn), video views by 77.2% (2.0bn) and minutes watched almost doubled, reaching 1.75bn (+84.6%). F1's growth on YouTube was particularly successful – at 115%, the sport had the highest subscriber growth rate of all marquee rights holders. Interactions, meanwhile, totaled 185m across all platforms (+52%) – with F1 having the highest interaction rate of all major sports’ rights holders.