Season-ending Valencia GP was the most-watched MotoGP race of all time
The 2015 MotoGP season was one of the most exciting in the history of the World Championship, with the title fight going down to the very last race. Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi led his teammate and title rival Jorge Lorenzo by just seven points coming into the season-ending Valencia GP. If that wasn’t enough, to add even more spice to the mix, the “Doctor” would have to start from the back of the grid after the three-point penalty he incurred at Sepang.
It was set up perfectly for the #TheGrandFinale and a record-breaking TV audience tuned in around the world to watch the drama unfold. They were in for a treat as Rossi rode valiantly from the back of the grid to finish in fourth, but it was in vain as Lorenzo went on to win and clinch his third MotoGP World Championship in dramatic fashion by the slender margin of just five points.
In Italy, the Valencia GP attracted an average audience of 9,673,699 across Cielo, Sky Sports MotoGP and MTV. This audience is over three times the amount of viewers who tuned into the final race of the season last year. The most watched race in Italy before had been the 2006 Valencia GP, where Rossi also missed out on the title in the season decider against Nicky Hayden.
In Spain it was a similar story, as 6,089,000 tuned in to watch Lorenzo take victory on Tele 5 and Movistar +MotoGP, making it the most-watched race since Alex Criville took the first premier class (500cc) title for a Spanish rider at the Brazilian GP in Rio in 1999. This more than doubled the amount of people who watched the Valencia GP on Spanish TV in 2014.
In the UK the race attracted the largest audience on the day for BT Sport and broke their record for the most viewers for MotoGP race. For Eurosport in Germany there was a peak audience in for the final round of the season.
On FOX Sports Malaysia it was one of the most watched GP’s of the year along with the amazing races in Jerez, Assen and Sepang while in the US FOX Sports saw a 53-percent increase year on year from last season’s GP.
It wasn’t just on TV that records were broken as 2015 also saw the attendance record at the circuits themselves smashed. In fact, 2,717,314 watched the action live from trackside in 2015, smashing the previous record of 2,473, 624 from last season.