Now that’s a huge number! F1 boasted how many viewers around the world watched the grand final in Abu Dhabi

Formula 1 and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – it was undoubtedly one of the most watched events at the end of last year, perhaps the most watched one. F1 has now boasted how many viewers actually watched this grand finale. The viewing figures, it should be noted, have soared to staggering heights…

Absolutely stunning, epic and not least highly controversial – such was the grand finale of the 2021 season, at the end of which Max Verstappen won the championship.

Formula 1 is currently enjoying a good run in terms of ratings and popularity. But apart from the thrilling battles on the track, it’s also helped by the massive media coverage, which, by the way, is the responsibility of F1’s owner – Liberty Media.

The Drive to Survive series on Netflix has also attracted the interest of many fans, especially in the US. New fans are beginning to follow Formula 1, but fans who had long since given up on the queen of motorsport have also returned in large numbers.

Verstappen’s battle with Lewis Hamilton was reminiscent of the bitter battles between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost or Niki Lauda and James Hunt.

Emotion, tension, spectacular on-track battles and great controversy – these are key aspects of why we saw sell-out grandstands in 2021 and why F1 has attracted so much interest.

F1 officials released many different figures a few dozen hours ago, such as how many spectators watched the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi. The title decider was watched by 108 million spectators!

That’s 29% more than for the same race in 2020. At the same time, Abu Dhabi was the most-watched race of the 2021 season. Cumulative TV viewership then stood at 1.55 billion viewers last year.

The sprints themselves also had high ratings. In particular, the Silverstone sprint was watched by 79.5 million people, while Monza and Interlagos broke the 80 million mark. As far as individual countries are concerned, we see a big increase in viewership in the Netherlands, where, probably thanks to Verstappen, there was a year-on-year increase of 81%.

f1 saw a 58% increase in the US, 48% in France and 39% in the UK. A total of 2.69 million fans were in the stands. It should be added – many races had limited capacity due to restrictions under the coronavirus pandemic.

On social media, Formula 1 also saw a significant increase in viewership, up 40% to 49.1 million users, and the main drivers were Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook

Sources