| Overall YouTube Momentum, Growth Surges as 63rd Rolex 24 Nears Conclusion |
| DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 26, 2025) – The 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona isn’t even over yet, and the international YouTube livestream of the race has already amassed more than two million views. The 2025 season opener marks the end of the first year of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races streaming live on YouTube. In that time, the channel has experienced exponential growth as new fans and viewers both domestically and globally have continued to discover the series through additional digital content. Starting at the 2024 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring with a softly launched first race stream on IMSA’s official YouTube channel, the momentum has steadily built over that period and is appearing to reach a crescendo with the first Daytona viewing on the channel. That Sebring race provided a starting point, with 21,000 peak concurrent views and 505,000 total live views for what was essentially a trial run to see how a WeatherTech Championship race would appear on the platform. As the anticipation built for the start of the first Rolex 24 to be streamed on IMSA’s YouTube channel to an international audience, the viewership appeared before honorary starter Koji Watanabe, President of Honda Racing Corporation, even waved the green flag to start the race. Before the race start, 20,000 people were “waiting” before the race went live. Once the race was underway, the race hit a new peak concurrent viewership number of 72,000. The YouTube feed achieved a milestone number of live views by the end of Saturday with over 1,000,000. It got even better as of Sunday morning, with that number eclipsing 2,000,000 live views. On the whole, the IMSA YouTube channel has nearly tripled in subscribers in the last 12 months and is approaching 730,000 subscribers as the Rolex 24 nears its conclusion. The domestic broadcast continues on NBC and Peacock in the U.S. as part of a long-term partnership extended for multiple years. Alongside it, the YouTube growth on the digital front has been a remarkable success story. Beyond the international race coverage, the channel has also grown along with the popular YouTube docuseries “Win the Weekend” Presented by Michelin. A third season of “Win the Weekend” is set to premiere shortly after the Rolex 24, with content captured during the weekend set to feature. Both series have delivered more than 15 million views to help increase the subscriber count and grow the IMSA audience. “We tried something last year at Sebring without any promotion that has taken our YouTube channel subscribers on the IMSA YouTube channel from 250,000 subscribers to knock it on the door of 700,000 before today’s race starts,” said IMSA President John Doonan in a prerace interview session. “At peak last year at Sebring, there was 21,000 viewers watching the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Now it’s geo-blocked in the US, and certain few other countries. But in France, Germany, the UK, obviously in Asia, Australia, you name it, fans around the world can take it in free, on YouTube on the IMSA YouTube channel, flag-to-flag.” The remainder of the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona continues to stream on the official IMSA YouTube channel to the finish, alongside the NBC and Peacock feeds for domestic TV. |
