Five years ago, The Match established itself as a must-watch event. Four years on, not so much.
Monday night’s iteration of The Match, the ninth such event since the initial Tiger vs. Phil showdown in 2018, garnered an average of 511,000 viewers across TNT, TruTV, and HLN. While that’s a substantial number on its own for a standalone golf event on a Monday evening, it marked the lowest viewership numbers seen so far.
This year’s event featured Rory McIlroy, Rose Zhang, Max Homa, and Lexi Thompson.
Last year’s version, which featured Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Steph Curry, and Klay Thompson, garnered the previous low of 782,000 viewers.
Looks like 511,000 viewers across TNT/truTV/HLN for "The Match" on Monday night (featured Rory, Max Homes, Lexi Thompson, Rose Zhang).
Previous low was 782,000 back in June 2023 (Mahomes/Kelce vs. Klay/Steph)
This was the 9th iteration of the event run by Excel Sports. pic.twitter.com/A9IZu0u4Jt
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) February 28, 2024
All of those numbers are a fry cry from the 5.8 million that tuned in for The Match: Champions for Change, featuring Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning.
Monday’s event also included several surprise guest appearances from Paul Bissonnette, DJ Khaled, and Charles Barkley, though none of them could juice viewership in a meaningful way.
The event did raise almost $2 million for charity and was still a good way to bring together men’s and women’s golfers for a fun evening. Despite the lagging ratings, chances are that we’ll continue to see more of The Match given its relatively low cost and ardent, if shrinking, viewership base.
