The opening weekend of the 2023/24 Premier League generated thrilling action and record audiences in the United Kingdom and in the United States.
Sky Sports, the main UK rights holder, reported a 40 per cent increase in viewers for its coverage of the opening weekend compared with 2022/23.
New pundits, new studio, exciting new @premierleague season sets records for Sky Sports. 😍
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) August 15, 2023
More than 8m football fans tuned into the five games on Sky Sports, including 2.5m under 35s. 🙌📺 pic.twitter.com/2HM8lzqaiH
In total Sky Sports’ five matches, from Friday night’s opener of Burnley's hosting of champions Manchester City through to Manchester United's dramatic 1-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday, were watched by eight million people.
Of these eight million, more than a quarter, 2.5million, were aged under 35 and more than a third (2.9million) were women.
The growth in the female audience was significant, a 50 per cent increase from last year.
Over in the States, Sunday’s match between Chelsea and Liverpool hit record streaming numbers for NBC Sports.
Record-breaking opening weekend number for Chelsea-Liverpool on @peacock pic.twitter.com/ZELiBJhiEu
— NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) August 15, 2023
The enthralling 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge was the most-streamed Premier League match of all-time in the US, with an average minute audience of 973,000 (in English and Spanish) on NBC’s streaming platform, Peacock.
This surpasses Peacock's previous record of 872,000 for Liverpool versus Arsenal in April last season.
