The season concluded with another sell out at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. In total, more than
855,000 fans attended Supercross in 2024.
Several high-priority initiatives are seeing a return on investment through streaming and television analytics, the first of which was changing the start times for all Pacific Time Zone races so they would start within the primetime viewing window in the East and Central time zones. The total amount of live minutes watched on Peacock for the 2024 Supercross season was 720M, a nearly 30% increase versus 2023. Round 2 in San Francisco delivered the largest streaming audience of the season with a 69% increase in viewership for the same round the previous year. The most minutes watched for any one round happened three weeks later at Round 8 in Daytona Beach, with 40.7M minutes live and another 11.6M minutes via video on demand.
Supercross also delivered very solid linear viewership on NBC at Round 2 in San Francisco, averaging 696,000 total viewers, only to be surpassed by the largest linear audience of the season at Round 5 in Detroit with 704,000. When streaming numbers are added to the mix, each of these races delivered an audience well above the 1M mark.
7.2M viewers watched a Supercross telecast on NBC, USA Network, and CNBC in 2024, up 24% from the Supercross audience reach in 2023.
The final round of Supercross from Salt Lake City was watched live on both Peacock and USA Network, plus a one-hour encore presentation was broadcast on NBC the following day. Total reach of unduplicated viewers on USA Network and NBC was over 900,000 people over the course of Saturday and Sunday.
The international livestream made available through the SuperMotocross Video Pass continues to drive a global viewing audience and makes SuperMotocross one of the most accessible sports on the planet. Another primary initiative for the 2024 season was the creation of a Spanish-language broadcast anchored by veteran broadcaster Edgar Lopez and former racer Tommy Rios. The Spanish-language broadcast is being viewed in over 130 countries, with most viewership coming from Mexico, Spain, and Latin America. 10% of all subscribers of the SMX Video Pass are watching in Spanish. Interesting enough, the Spanish-language broadcast is also seeing strong viewership in both Australia and Canada. Overall global subscribers to the SMX Video Pass are up 27.4% from last year.
Additional broadcast enhancements that are creating a better viewing experience at home include the use of drones and leader light technology. Drones have proven to provide a unique viewing angle for SuperMotocross racing and the SMX League has been the driving force behind several NFL stadiums allowing the use of drones on their properties. Supercross was the “first to fly” at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, at Lumen Field in Seattle and at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. In all, Supercross was allowed to fly in 11 of the 16 venues on the 2024 schedule.
Leader lights also make it much easier for fans at home or in the stadium to identify who is leading the race, which can sometimes become confusing when the leaders start lapping slower racers. 3D-printed carbon fiber LED lights are fastened to each motorcycle and 10 timing loops throughout the track determine which racer is in the lead, which automatically turns their bike’s light green. If they are passed, their lights will shut off and the competitor’s will turn on.
As the SuperMotocross World Championship hits the midway point in the year, the Pro Motocross Championship, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing, gets underway this Saturday, May 25, with the Honda Fox Raceway National in Pala, Calif. The 11-round outdoor season will travel to 10 different states, with visits to the hallowed grounds of Fox Raceway, Hangtown, Thunder Valley Motocross Park, High Point Raceway, RedBud MX, The Wick 338, Spring Creek MX Park, Washougal MX Park, Unadilla MX, Budds Creek Motocross Park, and Ironman Raceway.
