U.S. Open at Pinehurst Delivers NBC Sports’s Best Peak Rating for Event Since 2015

More than 10 million were watching when Rory McIlroy bogeyed the 72nd hole and Bryson DeChambeau won with an improbable bunker save.

Bryson DeChambeau celebrates with the trophy after winning the 2024 U.S. Open. / Katie Goodale-USA TODAY Sports

Not since 2015 had so many golf fans been watching in crunch time Sunday at a U.S. Open when Rory McIlroy bogeyed the 72nd hole at Pinehurst No. 2 and Bryson DeChambeau parred the hole to win it.

NBC Sports released its ratings Tuesday from the 124th U.S. Open and said that from 6:15-6:30 p.m. and 6:30-6:45 p.m., more than 11 million viewers watched on NBC and Peacock for what were the network’s highest U.S. Open peak quarter hours since 2015.

The final round overall delivered a total audience delivery of 5.9 million viewers across a seven-hour broadcast window, making the 2024 U.S. Open’s final round the most-watched east coast final round since 2013. It was up 9% from the last east coast U.S. Open at Brookline, Mass., in 2022, according to data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.

The coastal distinction is made because four of the last 10 U.S. Opens—since the 2014 edition at Pinehurst—have been played on the west coast and therefore ended in prime time in the eastern U.S.

Main NBC broadcast coverage of the U.S. Open produced a total audience delivery of 3.1 million, up 13% from 2022 and exceeding the last six east coast U.S. Opens.

Last week’s tournament was also NBC Sports’s most-streamed golf event ever, and Sunday’s final round was Peacock’s most-streamed telecast—breaking a record set Thursday during first-round coverage.