Ratings Roundup: NBC Sports Starts EPL Season With Most-Watched Opening Weekend; FOX Sports Enjoys Most-Watched NFL Preseason Game in Four Years

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Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, NBC Sports sees the most-watched opening weekend to the Premier League season in the U.S., FOX Sports’ presentation of Chicago Bears vs. Buffalo Bills was the network’s most-watched preseason game since 2021, and more.

NBC Sports Delivers Most-Watched Premier League Opening Weekend in U.S.

NBC Sports’ presentation of the Premier League’s first matchweek of the 2025-26 season is the most-watched opening weekend on record in the United States, according to official data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.

The opening weekend averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 850,000 viewers across six matches live on NBC/Peacock, USA Network, and NBC Sports Digital platforms from Friday, Aug. 15-Sunday, Aug. 17, up 4% from the prior record set in 2024 (820,000 TAD).

The Manchester United-Arsenal match on NBC, Peacock, and NBC Sports Digital platforms on Sunday, featuring 2024-25 PL runner-up Arsenal earning a 1-0 victory, averaged 2.0 million viewers, marking the most-watched opening weekend match on record in the U.S. and the second most-watched match on record (Manchester City-Arsenal, 2.1 million TAD on March 31, 2024).

Including Telemundo’s coverage of Manchester United-Arsenal, the match delivered a TAD of 2.3 million viewers to stand as the second most-watched match on record, including Spanish-language viewership (Manchester City-Arsenal, 2.6 million on 3/31/24).

FOX Sports Delivers Network’s Most-Watched NFL Preseason Game Since 2021

5.1 million viewers tuned in to FOX Sports’ preseason coverage of the Chicago Bears’ 38-0 victory over the Buffalo Bills. The exhibition game was FOX’s most-watched NFL preseason game since 2021 (vs. 7.4 million for Hall of Fame Game) and was the most-watched sports event of the weekend. In addition, the game is up +11% over last year (vs. 4.6 million for Saints-49ers) and the audience peaked at 5.9 million viewers from 9:00-9:15 PM ET.

Yankees on YES Total Viewership Up 5% Year-Over-Year

The New York Yankees’ push for another postseason berth in 2025 has resulted in impressive viewership totals on the YES Network. Among the highlights:

Nielsen total viewership for New York Yankees games on the YES Network is up 5% year-over-year (291,628 vs. 277,299)

Nielsen total viewership of YES’ Yankees games is 12% greater than that of SNY’s Mets game telecasts (291,628 vs. 259,392)

This season, 49% of the games on YES have averaged more than 300,000 Total Viewers, up from 33% of YES’ Yankees games reaching that benchmark season-to-date last year

Nielsen viewership of Yankees games on YES in The Gotham Sports App is up 84% year-over-year

NASCAR Action in Richmond

In the NASCAR Cup Series, last Saturday night’s race at Richmond on USA Network earned a 0.75 household rating with an average of 1.4 million viewers tuned in per minute. This put NASCAR as the No. 2 sport on cable that evening, behind only NFL Preseason games on NFL Network. While there is no direct YOY comparison, viewership was down -37% vs. 2024 Richmond II, which ran Sunday evening on USA Network (2.22 million). Viewership for 2025 Richmond was also down -14% vs. 2025 Atlanta II, which aired Saturday night on TNT & TruTV in June (1.6 million). At peak, 1.5 million viewers were tuned in 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET.

For the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the race earned a 0.21 household rating on FS1 with an average of 411,000 viewers tuned in per minute. This is the most-watched NCTS race on cable since Charlotte in May (412,000). It also ranked as the No. 1 sports event of the week on Fox Sports 1 ahead of MLB and LIV Golf. At peak, 498,000 viewers were tuned in 9:30-9:45 p.m. ET.

Among motorsports during last weekend, here are the following rankings based on audience size: