It feels like The Masters went by in a bit of a blur this year, but the 2026 edition of the pretigious event will go down in history for a number of reasons.
Obviously, we saw Rory McIlroy claim his second Masters title, becoming only the fourth golfer to win back-to-back at Augusta National.
It was a special week for golf with plenty of talking points, including Justin Rose falling short, LIV Golf stars struggling, and garden gnomes selling for $30,000.
Whatever storyline you were glued to over the course of The Masters, it all culminated in that exhilarating final round on Sunday.
And, according to viewership data from Sport Business Journal, that pivotal final round attracted a mammoth crowd — the biggest recorded since 2013.
There you have it: CBS says the final round of the Masters was its most watched in 11 years with 13.995M viewers (Nielsen Big Data + Panel)Last year averaged 12.990M (no Big Data added). Sunday's peak was at 20.049M, the largest since 2013 pic.twitter.com/BeCx7M8eqVApril 14, 2026
The coverage on Sunday peaked at 20.049 million, which is the highest peak for The Masters since 2013, when Adam Scott and Ángel Cabrera fought it out in a playoff, with the former prevailing.
When you look at the average viewer count for this year's event, which came out at 13.995 million, making it the highest-viewed final round in 11 years.
It was even 8% higher than last year's audience who tuned in to watch McIlroy secure his Career Grand Slam.
While CBS were criticized for their coverage of the final round, Sunday was actually the biggest day of golf ever for Paramount Plus.
It wasn't just the final round that proved popular, either.
CBS recorded 8.1 million viewers on Saturday, the highest crowd for a penultimate round in seven years. The figures for Thursday (+19%) and Friday (+14%) were much improved compared to last year, too.
So, while we can debate the winners and losers on the course at The Masters this year, the one thing beyond doubt is that the popularity of golf is growing rapidly, and Augusta National is at the heart of that rise.
