Well, now, y’all probably heard about this LIV Golf thing, right? Ain’t no doubt folks been talking about it. Some say it’s doin’ better than others, and some say it’s just a flash in the pan. But let me tell you, from what I seen, they sure been tryin’ their best to get eyeballs on their games, just like all them other big golf events out there.
Now, first thing you need to know is how many people been watchin’ this LIV Golf. I reckon it’s not so clear-cut as some folks think. You got your average viewers, and then you got your live viewers. They sound the same, but they ain’t quite the same, if you catch my drift. The average viewers is the number of folks watchin’ the game for any given moment. So, on a typical day, they might see about 89,000 folks watchin’ at any one time, which ain’t bad, but not near as high as those big PGA numbers.
On the other hand, live viewers are the ones that click on the stream, come and go, and all that. Some folks watch a little bit, then they leave, come back later. It’s a bit messier, but that’s the way the world works these days, especially with them youngins who got short attention spans.
But I reckon there’s a problem. LIV Golf just ain’t makin’ as much money as folks thought it would. Reports say they didn’t even make $100 million in 2023, which is real bad for a big sports league. Even their TV revenue wasn’t more than $3 million, which don’t add up when you consider how much they’ve been spendin’ on all those big-name players they brought in.
And get this: They had 14 events in 2023, and guess what? Almost half of them clashed with PGA Tour events. Now, that ain’t the best way to get folks to watch. You gotta be thinkin’ about your audience, not just your players. If people have to choose between LIV and PGA, you know they’ll go with the tried-and-true, don’t you? That’s just how it is.
Now, I know some folks might say, “Well, it’s still new, it’ll take time!” Maybe, maybe. But the numbers don’t lie, folks. You take the PGA Tour, for instance. In 2024, they were gettin’ 2.2 million viewers for their Sunday broadcasts, which is a little down from the 2.7 million they had in 2023. But still, that’s a lot more than LIV can pull in, and even if you throw in the big tournaments, PGA still comes out on top with about 2.8 million viewers on Sundays. That’s a big difference when you start adding it up.
But don’t think LIV is just sittin’ around doin’ nothing. They got their first-ever tournament broadcasted on TV this year, and that was a big deal for them. They finally made it to the big screen, so to speak. And from what I hear, it did a lot better than what they pulled on Saturdays before that. On Sunday, when they had the final round on The CW, it pulled in about 432,000 viewers, which was their highest number ever. That’s almost three times as many folks as tuned in on Saturday afternoon, where they only had about 168,000 viewers.
But here’s the thing, LIV Golf is still trying to find its feet. They’re gettin’ some solid numbers on platforms like YouTube and their LIV Golf+ platform. I heard from their own reports that their viewership jumped up by a whole lot. For instance, the LIV Mayakoba 2023 event saw a big ol’ rise in viewers compared to the year before. They got a 173% increase in folks watchin’ across three days, and on Sunday, the viewership was up by 124%. Not too shabby, if you ask me.
Still, I reckon they got a long way to go before they can stand toe-to-toe with the big boys like the PGA. People still love the PGA, and they’ve got decades of history behind ‘em. But if LIV keeps on grindin’, maybe they’ll get there one day. Who knows?
All in all, LIV Golf might be a bit behind now, but they’re clearly putting up a fight. As time goes on, we’ll just have to wait and see if they can keep improving their viewership numbers and get more folks tuning in. As for me, I’ll be watchin’ to see what happens next!
Tags：[LIV Golf, Golf Viewership, Sports TV Ratings, LIV Golf TV Ratings, PGA vs LIV, Golf Viewership Growth, LIV Mayakoba]
