The 2023 Ryder Cup was hosted at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club this year in Rome, Italy. With the time difference and early tee time starts, the TV ratings weren’t expected to be good.
However, due to the disappointing start for Team U.S., the ratings dropped significantly by almost a million viewers on Saturday and Sunday.
When compared to the 2018 Ryder Cup, which was hosted in Paris, the viewership engagement looks even worse.
The 2023 Ryder Cup drew only 3.245 million viewers across the three-day event compared to 5.478 million in 2018 when the Ryder Cup was in Paris, a drop of 40.8 percent.
TV Viewership Drops At 2023 Ryder Cup
The TV viewership has been released for NBC’s coverage of the 2023 Ryder Cup and it looks like U.S. engagement wasn’t very high.
On Friday, which was the first day of play, there were only 516,000 viewers followed by 1.414 million on Saturday and 1.315 million on Sunday. The final numbers for all three days combined totaled a mere 3.245 million viewers.
Compared to Paris in 2018, the 2018 broadcast had 886,000 viewers on Friday, 2.116 million on Saturday, and 2.476 million on the final day. Paris and Italy rest in the same time zone, and engagement was still higher in 2018 than in 2023.
| Ryder Cup | 2018 | 2023 | % Difference |
| Day 1 | 886,000 | 516,000 | -41.76% |
| Day 2 | 2,116,000 | 1,414,000 | -33.18% |
| Day 3 | 2,476,000 | 1,315,000 | -46.89% |
| Total | 5,478,000 | 3,245,000 | -40.76% |
Why Did Viewership Drop For the 2023 Ryder Cup?
Tee times started at 1:35 a.m. ET, which certainly factored into the viewership drop-off in Italy. However, TV ratings dropped by more than 40 percent and the competition lost more than 2 million total viewers compared to Paris, which also featured really early morning start times in 2018.
Viewership likely dropped due to the level of golf being played and the actual broadcast presentation itself. On Friday, Americans woke up to Team USA being swept in the first round losing 4-0. By the end of the day, the U.S. team had failed to even win a single match in the competition and trailed 6.5-1.5.
With no real chance, it seemed like engagement fell quickly after the Americans failed to put up a rally against the Europeans.
Along with the blowout, NBC’s telecast was getting heat from fans. The broadcast played more commercials than it did golf, making it even harder to keep fans engaged.
Competing with college football and the NFL, there wasn’t enough drama to keep fans invested in the Ryder Cup.
However, on the other side, the United Kingdom saw an increase in viewership as the Europeans took a demanding lead.
SkySports posted its highest viewership numbers for the Ryder Cup to date. The U.K. network averaged 785,000 viewers per day which is a 38% increase from 2021 and a 25% increase from 2018.
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