Live sports viewers increasingly embrace digital

Key stat: 105.3 million people in the US will watch live sports via digital this year, up from 95.5 million last year, per our September 2024 forecast.

Beyond the chart:

• The number of people watching sports will stay roughly the same over the next few years. But the number of digital viewers is increasing as the number of traditional pay TV viewers shrinks.
• New sports deals and offerings from streamers are boosting digital, including NFL games on Netflix, NBA and WNBA games on Amazon Prime Video, and linear TV network content available on Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV.

Use this chart: Marketers can use this chart to reconsider their TV ad investments, make the case for shifting spend from linear to streaming, and forecast future ad spend.

Related EMARKETER reports:

• US Sports Streaming 2024 (Subscription required)
• US Ad Spending by Industry 2024(Subscription required)

Methodology: Estimates are based on the analysis of survey and web traffic data from research firms and regulatory agencies, sales projections, historical trends, company-specific data, and demographic and socioeconomic factors.