There was a day that MotoGP rivaled in audiences with football. The Aragon GP confirms that this time has died

Moto GP, the queen category of the World Motorcycling, the most often of all, is ever seen in Spain. At least that is what some public data indicates, a rare thing in a country of great biker tradition like Spain and that has Marc Márquez, again, as a claim to fight for a title six years later.

What is happening?

One million. One million viewers. That is the figure that, According to Kantar Mediafollowed the race of Moto GP last Sunday through the sixth. Although the race became In the third program of the day with the highest market share, the truth is that the number of people who followed motorcycling per open on television was not as high as one would expect.

Especially if we consider that the trend is being down. The X account Lord of the Mediawhich regularly collects information related to sports audiences in Spain indicated that the monitoring of motorcycling is going down in Spain.

The data are going down. Compared to last year, it is estimated that some 600,000 people have stopped following the queen category of the World Cup. Of the 1.6 million of the Spanish Grand Prix that followed the race in 2024 to the million viewers of the last Grand Prix of Aragon, who joined, according to Kantar Media, one million people in front of television.

Along the way, in Spain other great open awards have been offered and the data (at least first) say that some interest has been lost. This user collects that the first date already mentioned last year was the aforementioned Grand Prix of Spain, with those 1.6 million. From there he went to the Grand Prix of Catalonia and the Solidarity GP (the race that replaced in Barcelona to the appointment that the calendar in Valencia should have closed and that could not be run because of the Dana). In both cases 1.3 million viewers were counted.

But this year we are having worse figures. The Spain Grand Prix left 1.2 million viewers in front of television and, first, one million viewers at the Aragon Grand Prix last weekend.

Sure? The data of a million spectators hides other figures. In See you They explain that the Dazn and Aragon TV viewers must be added to the data of La Sexta, where the race was also issued. In that case, the data add a non -negligible figure. The total sum leaves the race in 1,282,000 spectators.

Of these, Dazn would add another 152,000 spectators and the local television another 72,000 followers. That is, of the almost 1.3 million viewers, more than 15% used other platforms to follow the race. The market share also rises from 14.5% to 16.1% which would leave it as the second most watched program of the day (surpassing, yes, to the roulette of fortune, authentic rock in daily television consumption).

What could happen? The truth is that, as we said, seen with some perspective the data of last weekend does not seem so bad. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, when the race was issued by Tedeport, Telecinco and 1, respectively, the million spectators were not able to arrive.

However, we do not have the data of how many people followed Dazn last year the races of the Motorcycling World Cup. Either in See you They offered follow -up data for the private platform on the first appointment of the year in open.

A bitter fact. Despite the game of figures, the truth is that it seems that in a year the interest has declined. But most worrying, they point out from Motorpasion motorcycle It is expected that Marc Márquez, that this year leads the championship again and has very serious options to take the title six years later, is not generating the expected pull.

Especially if we take into account that the Spain 1 Grand Prix of Formula 1 took 2.2 million viewers in front of the television despite the fact that neither Carlos Sainz nor Fernando Alonso had real possibilities of Victoria, which always serves as a traction.

However, neither has formula 1 achieved large figures last year. The 1.44 million data in Telecinco in 2025 is slightly higher than the previous year but is far from the 1.72 million of 2022 and the 1.84 million of 2021. Only to good results fever In the first races with Aston Martin they managed to raise the figure to 2.25 million viewers in 2023.

The best days were left behind. What seems very clear is that the Motorcycling World Cup does not attract what attracted before. In recent years the races of the queen category have stagnated between one million and a million and a half spectators. But the big figures were left behind.

These, on the other hand, have not seen each other for more than a decade. 2015 was the last great year of huge audiences in motorcycling. That season were recorded almost six million viewers In the duel between Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi for taking the title. In 2013, the World Cup closure also brought together almost five million in front of the spectator. The second most seen in history, between both appointments, was the world title of Álex Crivillé in 1999.

A cluster of circumstances. There are several factors that explain why motorcycling has lost bellows in recent years although one seems to be erected above all. Crivillé’s title was the first of a Spaniard in 500 cc, so the expectation was maximum. The duels of the Spaniards with each other (Jorge Lorenzo-Dani Pedrosa) or with Valentino Rossi attracted an enormous interest.

But in Motorsan They regretted in 2018 that passing the distribution of the World Cup to a payment chain He had killed the audiences. It had passed in a few years of six million viewers just over 300,000 followers in front of television.

Without an open television network that follows the entire World Cup it is very complicated that then attracts a large volume of followers in two, three or four specific appointments a year. Forcing them to pay to follow the championship, it is simpler for the public to disconnect and then do not understand who are the true protagonists of the year and, ultimately, to get hooked again with millionaire audiences.

Photo | Ducati Cors

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