Motor racing’s 2023 Formula 1 (F1) World Championship season shown on major sports broadcaster ESPN’s platforms was the second most-viewed F1 season of all time on US television.

Broadcasts reached an average of 1.11 million viewers across the season on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC, which was second to last year’s record-setting average of 1.21 million.

Last year’s average viewership figure included the 2.6 million average viewership for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix, the largest live audience ever for a Formula 1 race on US television.

The F1 2023 season included three of the four largest live American TV audiences on record for F1 races, with the Miami grand prix being seen by 1.96 million, Monaco by 1.79 million, and Canada by 1.76 million.

Eight races set US television viewership records, including Saudi Arabia, Monaco, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Singapore, and Mexico.

Meanwhile, the Monaco Grand Prix aired for the first time live on ABC, attracting its largest live audience on record, with 1.79 million viewers, and the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix on November 19 attracted an average audience of 1.3 million despite its 1 am ET starting time.

This season’s finale, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 26, had an average audience of 927,000 on ESPN and the F1 Kids alternate telecast on ESPNU.

F1 viewership has been increasing in the US since returning to ESPN platforms in 2018, with average viewership almost doubling from 554,000 in 2018 to 1.11 million in 2023.

The 2023 F1 season was the first of a three-year renewal between ESPN and Formula 1 announced in 2022, in a deal that will see races aired across the US on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 through the 2025 season, with the previous deal between the two having been struck in 2019.

The top motor racing series and Netflix extended their deal for the docuseries in May 2022 to return for its fifth and sixth seasons, respectively, in 2023 and 2024.

The 2024 F1 season will begin on March 2 at the Bahrain International Circuit.