There were two pretty major sporting events happening this past Sunday.
The NBA All-Star Game, and the Daytona 500.
However, one event absolutely obliterated the other in ratings, and I’ll give ya a second to guess which one it was….
Yep, you probably guessed it. The Daytona 500’s ratings blew the All-Star Game’s outta the water, beating it out by 41% according to Michael Mulvihill from FOX Sports.
The Daytona 500 beat the NBA All-Star Game by +41%, the largest gap between the two events in five years.
— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) February 23, 2022
To add some insult to injury, it’s the largest gap the two events have seen in five years.
However, as Sports TV Ratings pointed out, the total viewership for the Daytona 500 was all ages, with more people under the age of 50 watching the All-Star Game (as you would probably expect).
the NBA All-Star Game beat the Daytona 500 by +61% with adults under 50. (3.138M across TNT & TBS vs 1.948M) https://t.co/lUc5rTC192
— Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) February 23, 2022
Although the difference in demographics of who watched what, it’s easy to see that the race was a much more anticipated event.
Personally, I understand.
You have the Daytona 500, a major Cup Series race and one of the most popular racing events in NASCAR, and the race that kicks off the season… and then there’s the All-Star Game which is some of the best players in the league playing zero defense so they don’t get hurt, and there’s not much to watch.
Nevertheless, Twitter was set ablaze after the numbers dropped:
Squeaky shoe fans in shambles. https://t.co/dMtZ69j51I
— Jake Schwanitz (@JakeSchwanitz) February 23, 2022
As much as I love the game of Basketball glad to hear Daytona 500 did better than the NBA All Star game https://t.co/bEs7NfQAgs
— Michael Kirk(R)🙏🏀🇱🇷 (@BucketFam24_MK) February 23, 2022
Holy shit https://t.co/k0DckOWjFO
— kadarius toney bags (@dudelawless) February 23, 2022
WOW…this isn’t good for the A https://t.co/75XbHswe1u
— I’m Not Tired Yet (@Runnin4Jesus24) February 23, 2022
One aired on broadcast TV and the other on cable. One is the biggest NASCAR events of the year. Is this supposed to be surprising? https://t.co/9rC3MGBuG5
— Gavin 👨🏽💻 (@gavinpaul_6) February 23, 2022
Comparing one sport's super bowl with the other’s not-even-best-night-of-the-weekend exhibition feels like apples and oranges, and also “in five years” isn’t a very long time? Saying this as someone open to the “ratings watch” being a worthwhile exercise. https://t.co/Ysw9joCDKW
— Punch-Drunk Wolves (@PDWolves) February 23, 2022
Comparing one of nascars biggest events to an glorified pick up game? https://t.co/DT7LWNna1c
— National Champ 🏆 Ladd MyHonkey (@RostafarianJam) February 23, 2022
I’ve been saying this shit for 2 yrs now! NBA Twitter is not reality!! Adam Silver has to do something to change the perception & gain viewers back!! https://t.co/BdGWCUBUIo
— Van (@vanman_1000) February 23, 2022
Circular left turns > world-class athleticism. Obviously https://t.co/ZAT1x6T2Ru
— £vanScales (@E_V_S_1) February 23, 2022
people who follow the nba have better things to do than watch that game. people who watch nascar have no life so this is all they got https://t.co/Eru93Tcwl3
— dereemus (@dereemus) February 23, 2022
I had a much better time watching The Daytona 500 than the NBA All Star Game. https://t.co/9N1Yl8702X
— Coby's Corner (@CobyValentine) February 23, 2022
And Michael Jordan made it to both:
Daytona 500 in the morning, NBA All-Star Game at night.
Here's Michael Jordan 🐐🐐pic.twitter.com/dQaYOXued9
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) February 21, 2022
It also beat out the Olympics, but… nobody was really watching that this year either…
The Daytona 500 appears to be the most-viewed single sport telecast of the weekend, beating out @Olympics and @NBA All-Star.
➖ NASCAR notes that in 2019, the race did not go up against Olympics and that 2022 share, a slightly different metric than rating, was up 24% from 2019. pic.twitter.com/OrP7VgMpcr
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) February 23, 2022
