Sunday’s Manchester City-Arsenal 0-0 draw on NBC didn’t deliver much excitement, but the match’s high stakes brought in a record amount of viewers.
Per NBC, the match averaged a United States-record 2.12 million viewers on NBC, Peacock, and NBC’s digital platforms. It’s the first Premier League match to ever cross the two million viewer mark in English.
Adding in the Spanish-language audience on Telemundo, the match’s average viewership climbs to 2.59 million, another record.
On streaming alone, the match had an average minute audience of 547,000 viewers.
Over the last 15 months, NBC has aired the six most-watched Premier League matches in U.S. history. City-Arsenal on Sunday led the way, followed by Liverpool-Arsenal on December 23 (1.96 million), Arsenal-Manchester United on January 22, 2023 (1.96 million), Liverpool-United on December 17 (1.77 million), Newcastle-City on January 13 (1.68 million), and City-Chelsea on February 17 (1.51 million).
The 2023-24 Premier League season is entering its final weeks, with the top three teams separated by just four points. The three (Liverpool, Arsenal, City) won’t play each other again the rest of the way, but Tottenham Hotspur do play all three, while both Manchester United and Chelsea have matches left with both Arsenal and Liverpool. Could any of those crack new viewership heights down the stretch? If the title race remains this tight, it might not be out of the realm of possibility.
[NBC Sports, image via Manchester City]
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.