The Saudi-funded LIV Golf league failed to make significant inroads during its first season on a major broadcast network.
Across 17 telecasts on Fox this year, LIV Golf averaged just 338,000 viewers, a far cry compared to its PGA Tour competition. When considering just LIV’s final round viewership, the rogue golf league only fared slightly better, averaging 385,000 viewers across five telecasts. Even removing from consideration LIV’s three international tournaments to air on Fox, the league averaged 344,000 viewers across 14 telecasts, hardly better than its overall average on the network despite the exclusion of unfavorable windows.
To be certain, these figures are generally better than what LIV Golf was drawing on The CW, which aired the league prior to its recent deal with Fox. LIV telecasts generally drew anywhere from 200,000 to 300,000 viewers on The CW. However, that baseline is far higher than what the league would attract on FS1 and FS2, where telecasts ended up when the Fox broadcast channel was airing other programming. Midway through this season, LIV broadcasts on FS1 were averaging just 63,000 viewers.
Unsurprisingly, PGA Tour viewership proved much more robust than LIV over the course of 2025. Final round viewership for the PGA Tour averaged 2.66 million viewers across 26 events on NBC and CBS. Compared to LIV’s five final round broadcasts on Fox, the PGA Tour beat the Saudi league by a factor of about 7-to-1.
The PGA Tour’s viewership dominance over LIV Golf is nothing new. Yet, LIV’s lack of commercial viability doesn’t seem to be phasing its Saudi benefactors, who remain intent on pouring billions of dollars into the product. Last week, the Financial Times reported the league lost nearly $500 million in 2024 under its UK-based entity alone. This is after eating $400 million in losses for 2023, and nearly $250 million in 2021-22.
2025 showed little sign of LIV turning a corner with an American audience. Viewers are voting with their remote, and choosing the PGA Tour over LIV Golf time and time again. And with reunification of the pro game looking as distant as ever, LIV’s stars will continue to toil in obscurity outside of major championships four times each year.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.