The inaugural running of the Las Vegas Grand Prix overcame the handicap of its 1am Eastern starting time to attract one of ESPN’s largest Formula 1 audiences of the season.
ESPN reports that its live telecast, which ran from 1-3:05am ET, averaged 1.3 million viewers, the third-largest F1 audience of the season on cable and sixth-largest overall on ESPN platforms this season. An average of 668,000 in the 18-49 age demographic tuned to watch Max Verstappen win the closely-contested race over Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez.
The Las Vegas race was the most-viewed F1 race since June’s Canadian GP on ABC (1.76m) and the most-watched telecast of any kind on cable after 11pm ET Saturday night and in the overnight hours. Viewership for the race peaked at 1.5 million between 1:15-1:30am.
The race was also streaming on ESPN+ where it ranked as the second most-viewed F1 race on ESPN+ on record, behind only this season’s Miami GP.
Qualifying for the Las Vegas GP, which aired from 2:54-4:09am ET on Nov. 17, averaged 626,000 viewers on ESPN.
With one race remaining, the 2023 F1 season remains on track to be the F1’s second most-viewed season ever on U.S. television, averaging 1.12 million viewers. Last year’s record-setting season, which included the inaugural Miami GP that averaged a record 2.6m viewers, averaged 1.21m.
The 2023 season has had three of the four largest live F1 audiences in history on U.S. television: Miami (1.96m), Monaco (1.79m) and Canada (1.76m million).