2024 Presidents Cup ratings plummet, dwarfed by football and golf’s majors

The ratings marked a 28 percent decline from 2022’s audience.

The 2024 Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal drew a sharply smaller television audience compared to the 2022 edition that was played at Quail Hollow Golf Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.

According to Nielsen data reported by Sports Business Journal, 1.37 million people tuned in for Sunday’s final day on NBC, marking a 28 percent decline from 2022’s audience of 1.89 million, even though the events were played in the same time zone. Saturday’s all-day coverage, which served as a lead-in to college football on NBC, brought in 1.21 million viewers, down 36 percent from 1.89 million two years ago.

To put Sunday’s 1.37 million viewers into perspective, the NFL matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers on CBS attracted 24.1 million viewers. The Thursday night football game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants, which was only available on Amazon Prime, drew 16.2 million views. The viewership number for Sunday’s Presidents Cup was about the same as Fox’s NFL Kickoff pre-game show on Sunday (1.2 million) and the second game of the WNBA Playoff series between the Minnesota Lynx and Phoenix Mercury (1.2 million).

The Presidents Cup’s figures fall significantly short of the golf’s marquee events. The final round of the 2024 Masters was down 20 percent year-over-year but was still viewed by 9.58 million people. The final round of the 2024 U.S. Open, which featured a dual between Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy, was viewed by a a total audience on NBC and Peacock of 5.9 million viewers.