One more Oregon22 record: TV viewers up 65% from previous best

by NBC Sports Group

STAMFORD, Conn. – July 27, 2022 – Powered by the incredible performances of superstar athletes Sydney McLaughlin, Noah Lyles, Athing Mu, Fred Kerley, Katie Nageotte, Ryan Crouser and many more, the World Track & Field Championships Oregon22 are the most-watched World Track & Field Championships on record (since 1988), reaching 18.7 million total viewers across NBC Sports platforms for the 10-day event.

The 18.7 million total viewers surpass NBC Sports’ previous record for the event by 65% (London 2017, 11.3 million).

In the first-ever outdoor World Track & Field Championships held in the United States, Team USA finished with 33 total medals (13 gold), the highest ever by a single nation, breaking a 35-year-old record (31, East Germany, Rome 1987). The previous American record was 30 medals for London 2017. See below for the complete Team USA medal haul.

On the final night of competition on Sunday, July 24, NBC averaged 2.362 million TV-only viewers (9:00-11:06 p.m. ET/PT), making it the network’s most-watched track & field program in 26 years, excluding Olympics and U.S. Team Trials. Viewership peaked at 3.2 million viewers at the end of the competition night. It was also the second-most watched sports program of the weekend.

“Oregon22 was an unprecedented opportunity to engage with passionate American track & field fans and make new ones,” said Gary Zenkel, President, NBC Olympics & Paralympics. “The U.S. Track & Field team, fueled by an electric, live crowd at iconic Hayward Field, delivered on that opportunity and then some, with a dominant performance across multiple events on the track and in the field that sets the stage for a record-setting Paris 2024 Olympics.”

Additional viewership highlights:

• Coverage for the seven NBC broadcast network programs — including four in primetime, a first for the event – averaged nearly two million TV-only viewers (1.934 million), the highest World Track & Field Championships average for the network in 15 years (2007, 2.08 million, one NBC telecast).
• Friday night’s (July 22) primetime coverage on USA Network averaged 783,000 TV-only viewers, NBC Sports’ second-most watched track & field cable telecast on record, excluding Olympics and U.S. Team Trials. It trails only the 2018 Indoor Championships, which had a Winter Olympics lead-in (1.306 million, NBCSN, Feb. 10).
• Across all 43 hours of television coverage (NBC/USA/CNBC), the 2022 World Track & Field Championships averaged 834,000 viewers – the highest average for the event since 2015 (1.163 million, four NBC-only telecasts). That average viewership is more than four times larger than the 2019 event in Doha (199,000 viewers).
• The T&F World Championships set a new streaming record with more than 200 million minutes viewed, including simulstreams, exclusives, and replays, across Peacock and NBC Sports digital platforms. NBC Sports’ record coverage of the 10-day event (July 15-24) included 43 hours of television programming across NBC, USA Network and CNBC, as well as live streaming coverage of all competition sessions on Peacock. NBC Sports digital platforms live streamed all television coverage.

Via its extensive media rights agreement with World Athletics that runs through 2029, NBC Sports will present the next four outdoor World Track & Field Championships, including Budapest 2023 and Tokyo 2025, and many other championship meets.

NBCUniversal also has exclusive U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2032, including the Paris 2024 Olympic Games which begin two years from yesterday, and will feature extensive track & field coverage.