MOORESVILLE, N.C. (March 31, 2020) – When iRacing and NASCAR teamed up with FOX Sports to present the eNASCAR Pro Invitational Series, nobody knew if it would move the needle or not.
According to Nielsen, it definitely moved the needle...and it has inspired other sports leagues to attempt something similar.
According to Nielsen’s data on the inaugural race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 22—in which Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second and Justin Allgaier finished 20th—the event was the most-watched linear esports broadcast in history. An average of 638,000 homes and 903,000 viewers watched the event, and 1.6 million unique viewers tuned in for at least six minutes. Of that total, the average tune-in time was 59 minutes, 42 seconds, a large chunk of the 112-minute broadcast.
More important, both now and for the future, the first-of-its-kind event brought in 255,000 viewers who had not watched a 2020 NASCAR Cup Series race.
Ratings from this past Sunday's race at the virtual Texas Motor Speedway topped 1.3 million viewers.
Social media, which has been abuzz of late with the continuing health crisis, also had monster numbers to report, according to Nielsen Social Content Ratings data. Per Nielsen, the March 22 event was “the most social TV program of the day on Twitter, generating 217,300 interactions and 912,500 video views.”
That is significant in that “NASCAR drivers had a commanding presence during the televised race, accounting for nearly half (49%) of all owned Twitter engagement (across NASCAR, team, driver and media profiles) around the iRacing Pro Invitational Series broadcast, a much larger share than during live NASCAR Cup Series races.”
JR Motorsports in particular has had great engagement through the two races. To date, @JRMotorsports has earned over 2 million total impressions and over 80,000 total engagements.
Esports, with iRacing in particular, is woven into the DNA of JR Motorsports, led by Earnhardt Jr.’s dedication and promotion of virtual racing. Many employees at JRM share his passion for the leading motorsports sim universe. It’s also been a boon for teams, sponsors and rights holders in NASCAR during a time when most pro sports league are idled. New sponsors and opportunities are flocking to the televised events, and iRacing itself has swelled its membership ranks as well.
“Esports and virtual sports competitions represent promising new opportunities for traditional sport leagues and teams to engage their core fans while also delivering value to sponsors,” said Jessica Forrest, Group Vice President at Nielsen Sports. “During a time when traditional live sports are at a standstill, NASCAR is one of the few sports whose athletes can still actively compete by doing what they do best—race. And the success of last weekend’s iRacing debut on live television demonstrates that sports fans are ready to consume sports in new, innovative ways.”