Despite High Viewership, LIV Golf Trails Behind PGA Tour Event in Ratings

LIV Golf's inaugural event in the United States in 2025 garnered record viewership for the league, with 484,000 individuals tuning in to witness Marc Leishman's victory in Miami on Sunday.

Unfortunately for the breakaway organization, this was still less than a third of the number of viewers who chose to watch a standard PGA Tour event on the same day.

Despite Brian Harman's multiple-shot lead at the start of the day and his four-stroke lead during the final round, NBC reported 1.746 million viewers for the Valero Texas Open, according to the Sports Business Journal.

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The previous high for a LIV event in the U.S. was 432,000 for the 2024 season opener in Mexico, which aired on the CW. The league secured a deal with Fox Sports before the 2025 season, and the first round of the event on Friday drew 389,000 viewers, surpassing the PGA event's 327,000 on Golf Channel. By Saturday, the Valero was attracting 1.583 million viewers on NBC, while LIV on FS1 only had 137,000.

Despite lacking a star-studded field, the Valero had more viewers for the week, with Harman defeating the likes of Ryan Gerard and Andrew Novak. Meanwhile, Sunday's event in Miami saw Leishman outperform well-known names such as Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, and Sergio Garcia, with Jon Rahm also finishing in the top 10.

Viewership numbers from last week were seen as a crucial test for LIV Golf as it went head-to-head against the PGA Tour for the first time on Fox Sports. While Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) was previously considered to have the upper hand in merger discussions with the PGA Tour due to its vast financial resources, the creation of PGA Tour Enterprises backed by a $3 billion investment from the Strategic Sports Group appears to have shifted the balance.

The tour reportedly turned down the PIF's recent offer to invest $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises. The investment offer came with the condition that LIV would remain intact, which is not feasible for the PGA Tour. The tour aims to have the world's best golfers competing on one circuit.

Viewership numbers for the Valero still represented a 20 percent decrease from last year, but the tour has seen strong ratings overall at the start of 2025. After a decline last year, the SBJ reported last week that weekend coverage on CBS and NBC has increased by 10 percent compared to the same point last season.

In addition to six consecutive weekends of viewership growth across NBC and Peacock leading up to the Valero, CBS' average of 2.3 million viewers was up 17 percent year-over-year.

\"While the numbers are positive and encouraging, we still have a lot of golf ahead of us,\" Norb Gambuzza, EVP/media at the PGA Tour, told the SBJ. \"We want to remain humble and continue to focus on our product and delivering what fans want.\"

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