Overview
- NBC’s final‑round coverage of the 154th Open Championship averaged 4.3 million viewers on Sunday, and peaked at about 6.1 million during the 1:15 p.m. ET quarter‑hour when Ryan Fox sank the winning birdie for his first major.
- Saturday’s third round on NBC and Peacock averaged 3.7 million viewers, a 16% increase from 2025 and the most‑watched Open third round since 2018.
- This Open was the first measured under Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel system, and outlets note the new methodology could fully or partly account for the reported year‑over‑year gains.
- Later the same day FOX aired the FIFA World Cup final, which the network reported averaged about 38.94 million viewers and peaked near 51.69 million, while NBC’s Open coverage concluded before the World Cup began.
- The Open’s gains are notable given its usual morning window for U.S. viewers and lower historical reach compared with other majors, a pattern that broadcasters and advertisers will watch as Nielsen’s new metric becomes standard.