ESPN suffer Las Vegas GP blow as viewership figures emerge

The 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix saw a significant drop in viewership in the United States, figures have revealed, despite the race's TV audience rising 10% across other markets.

This year's event was the second iteration of the modern-day night race around the streets of the iconic city, with it proving an exciting weekend of action on track.

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Mercedes star George Russell was the man to win the race on Saturday night, leading a stunning Mercedes one-two home ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton, but Red Bull star Max Verstappen had even greater cause for celebration in Vegas.

Following his P5 finish — one place above title rival Lando Norris in P6 — Verstappen had done enough to secure his fourth consecutive drivers' championship, putting him in an exclusive club of just six drivers to have won four or more titles.

Las Vegas Grand Prix viewership figures

Despite the fact the drivers' championship was wrapped up in the race, and the fact that start times had been brought earlier into the evening compared to 2023, it was not enough to attract more viewers than the previous year.

In fact, according to ESPN figures relaid by Blackbook Motorsport, the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix lost viewers compared to the 2023 race, and quite a few.

According to the data, in 2023, 1.3 million viewers tuned in on ESPN to watch the Las Vegas race. Yet, in 2024, this figure had dropped significantly by 395,000 to 905K viewers, making it by far the least-watched race of the three F1 races in the United States in 2024, although a sell-out crowd of 306,000 packed into the grandstands in Nevada.

In many ways, the gap between Vegas and the other US races this season is a positive for the sport thanks to some eye-popping numbers elsewhere – with the Miami Grand Prix attracting a record-setting 3.1 million viewers on ESPN, while the US Grand Prix in Austin in October was watched by 1.3 million viewers in the US.

With the Miami GP having been new to the calendar in 2022, that is the biggest viewership any US race has had, after figures of 2.58M in 2022 and 1.96M in 2023.

The figures on the US GP are fairly stable, too, with the race having attracted broadly similar numbers in 2021 (1.4M), 2022 (1.34M), 2023 (1.17M) and 2024 (1.3M).

The Las Vegas Grand Prix will be hoping that their viewership figures can bounce back in 2025, with the race contracted until next year and reported plans for a further extension into the future.

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