Shareablee: F1 suffers decline in global audience

Formula 1 suffered a decline in its global audience and unique viewers during 2020, with falls of 4.5% and 8%, respectively, although the sport’s social media presence continues to grow.

Overall, the sport had an average audience of 87.4 million per Grand Prix last year, down from 91.5 million in 2019. However, it remains up in comparison with every other year since the start of the turbo-hybrid era in 2014.

There was strong audience growth in key markets, including China (43%), the Netherlands (28%), the UK (10%), and Russia (7%), while the US audience saw a 1% increase. This comes amid dramatic falls in the audience for several other US-based sports series, with the 2020 Indianapolis 500 experiencing record low domestic viewers.

Overall, unique viewers were down 8% year on year to 433 million, while the cumulative TV audience fell from 1.9 billion in 2019 to 1.5 billion. This is likely due to the number of races falling from 21 to 17 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The highest audience for a single race came at Hungarian Grand Prix, with 103.7 million views tuning in worldwide.

According to Shareablee, F1 is the second-fastest-growing major sports league on the planet in terms of follower growth. We have 35m total followers and have seen by far the fastest growth in engagement compared to other major sports, with a 99% increase in 2020.