Formula E breaks new record with 381 million spectators
The 8th season of Formula E just finished, with Stoffel Vandoorne taking the World Champion title with the Mercedes-EQ team. It’s hard to believe the championship has been around for 8 seasons already and while the beginnings were tough, the audience levels kept growing from one season to the next.
The 8th season of Formula E has broken all viewing records so far. 381 million people watched the championship with 216 million people watching it live. That’s a healthy increase of 10% over the previous season but the number of viewing hours went up by a staggering 58% compared to last year.
The reasons behind the numbers, according to Formula E, are the new scheduling consistency, new qualifying format and the increased number of races. This year, for the very first time, Formula E raced in 10 cities across the world for a total of 16 races. The debut in Jakarta and double headers in Seoul drew new crowds, the Jakarta race was the most watched race domestically in Formula E’s history with 26.7 million people tuning in.
The new qualifying format gained a lot of praise from viewers, 22 drivers were split into two groups and the best 4 from each group competed against each other in “Duels” tournament. Comparing the new format to last year’s traditional fastest lap qualifying, the viewing numbers went up by 49%.
For the first time, Formula E’s live viewers made up a majority of the audience with 216 million people following the races as they happened. Along with the replays the total reaches 381 million people, a 20% increase over the season 7.
The biggest change came from audience engagement - total viewing hours went up by a whopping 58% with the duration of live broadcast watched increased by 28%. Those are excellent stats and they only prove that Formula E is getting more and more popular.
Obviously, Formula E has a long way to go, but it has proven beyond any doubts it is here to stay. The new Gen3 car will be introduced in Mexico on January 23 which will mark the opening of the next, most likely record-breaking season.
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