Our Clients:

Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

May 5, 2025 2:34 pm

Kentucky Derby viewership climbs despite attendance dip

sovereignty

Saturday’s Kentucky Derby surpassed last year’s viewership total as the most-watched edition of the race since 1989, according to the early numbers.

Sovereignty’s victory in the season’s first Triple Crown race averaged 17.7 million viewers on NBC, according to a combination of Nielsen fast-national numbers and Adobe Analytics.

That surpassed the 2024 total of 16.7 million as the most since 18.5 million watched the Kentucky Derby in 1989.

The record streaming audience of 959,000 was a 34 percent spike over last year’s total of 714,000.

Viewership peaked at 21.8 million viewers just after 7 p.m. ET, when Sovereignty held off favorite Journalism to win. That was an 8 percent jump from the 2024 peak audience of 20.1 million.

Attendance suffered on a rainy day at Churchill Downs, with the crowd of 147,406 down nearly 6 percent from the previous year.

The track announced that wagering from all sources on Saturday’s race card totaled $349 million, breaking last year’s record of $320.5 million. Betting on the Kentucky Derby alone was a record $234.4 million, topping the sum of $210.7 million from 2024.

–Field Level Media

You may also like

texas oklahoma
May 31, 2025 5:57 pm

Texas takes down Oklahoma to advance to WCWS semifinals

OKLAHOMA CITY – Kayden Henry broke a tie with a fifth-inning home run and Joley Mitchell blasted another in the sixth to help lift Texas to a 4-2 win over…

belmont stakes saratoga
May 31, 2025 11:09 am

Report: Belmont Stakes to return to Saratoga in 2026

The Belmont Stakes, the third leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown, reportedly will be run at Saratoga Race Course for a third consecutive year in 2026. WNYT-13, the NBC affiliate…

oregon, rebels
May 31, 2025 1:57 am

Oregon KOs Ole Miss in WCWS on 10th-inning walk

OKLAHOMA CITY — Kedre Luschar drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 10th inning to give No. 16 Oregon a 6-5 win over Ole Miss in a Women’s…

More Other News

texas oklahoma
May 31, 2025 5:57 pm

Texas takes down Oklahoma to advance to WCWS semifinals

OKLAHOMA CITY – Kayden Henry broke a tie with a fifth-inning home run and Joley Mitchell blasted another in the sixth to help lift Texas to a 4-2 win over…

belmont stakes saratoga
May 31, 2025 11:09 am

Report: Belmont Stakes to return to Saratoga in 2026

oregon, rebels
May 31, 2025 1:57 am

Oregon KOs Ole Miss in WCWS on 10th-inning walk

FGCU
May 30, 2025 10:02 pm

Report: FGCU Athletics vacates 82 wins, 2 ASUN titles

Florida, softball
May 30, 2025 9:31 pm

Alannah Leach gets Tennessee offense rolling in win vs. Florida

Read all
fb-post
advertisment
title-icon

Upcoming events

See all odds
[gs-fb-comments]