Viewership for F1’s season opener on Apple TV is unknown, however downloads for the streaming service greater than tripled their every day common final weekend, at the very least on Android gadgets, based on information from market intelligence agency Sensor Tower. The 2026 season began Down Below in Melbourne, with Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Staff taking the checkered flag in first and second positions. The primary race of the five-year Apple U.S. media rights deal appeared to go off largely and not using a hitch on the printed facet, with few experiences on social media of outages or buffering points.
Followers had a number of choices for methods to watch the race, together with Sky Sports activities’ feed, the F1 TV broadcast and particular person in-car cameras. On Saturday, Apple TV’s every day energetic customers elevated 58% from the prior day, Sensor Tower informed SBJ. Its information additionally confirmed that, on the day of the race, U.S. downloads have been up 243% and every day energetic customers have been up 176% when in comparison with the prior 30 days on the platform.
Sensor Tower stated its information solely displays Android gadgets and doesn’t embody Apple iOS pre-installs or Apple TV in-app income. Liberty Media and F1 execs have been signaling in current weeks that they view present viewership monitoring strategies as being archaic and that they don’t intend to guage the efficiency of the deal solely upon evaluating Apple’s viewership to rankings with the prior companion, ESPN. No rankings data on the race has been launched.
On the F1 Reddit web page, a thread after the race in regards to the Apple stream had 160 feedback, with the unique poster writing: “I actually actually just like the HDR stream, it makes an enormous distinction through the race. The monitor appears to be like significantly better and feels extra immersive! The F1 TV in-race commentary is okay however Apple wants so as to add the choice to change to the Sky Sports activities audio feed together with all the opposite audio tracks from the F1 TV app. … Total it’s begin however there’s undoubtedly room for enchancment.” One other poster wrote: “Truthfully I assumed it was nice. I used to be normally watching on a sketchy stream web site earlier than, however I’ve Apple TV regardless and that is infinitely higher.” There have been some complaints in regards to the high quality of the image, with one touch upon Reddit studying: “The image high quality in the present day was shit, may as nicely watch customary definition.” One other learn: “The standard within the Apple TV app this 12 months in comparison with the F1 TV app final 12 months appears to be rubbish. Colours are washed out and video is a bit uneven below heavy digital camera motion.”
