Figures about cycling’s popularity are frequently bandied about, particularly in the run-up to and during Tour de France. You’ll very likely hear someone tell you in the coming weeks that 3.5 billion people across the world – almost one in two – will watch at least some of the world’s biggest bike race. Spoiler: it’s a lie.
Richard Plugge, the manager of Visma-Lease a Bike, claimed in January that “you need to make sure cycling stays one of the top-five sports in the world”, while GWI, a market research company, reports that cycling is the eighth-most followed sport in the world. Who is right, if either? The answer is nuanced – it depends on each individual country.
Meanwhile, the stats folks at Guinness World Records – who themselves promote that 3.5 billion figure – declared over a decade ago that the Tour de France is the most-attended sporting event on the planet, with over 12 million annual spectators. If young French darling Paul Seixas mounts the yellow jersey challenge his hype train is sure he will, then that figure will double or triple. Heck, it might even quadruple.
But how many people actually watch professional cycling? You know, not just the Tour or the Giro d’Italia or Paris-Roubaix, but the smaller races: the Tours of Guangxi and Poland of this world, or the Trofeo Alfredo Binda or Copenhagen Sprint?
To answer that question, Escape Collective has obtained extensive reports from Neilsen, a worldwide data and analytics firm that monitors and measures media audiences. The American company is its industry’s gold standard, and most WorldTour cycling teams employ its services at the end of every season to compile a report that assesses brand exposure and media value of the teams themselves and their associated sponsors.
Nielsen pulls together their figures by combining the total number of viewers (of one continuous minute or more) of live, delayed and highlights coverage, as well as news segments and TV magazine shows (think of Eurosport’s Breakaway).
The results from the 2025 season are broadly in line with what you’d expect: the men’s Tour de France is by far and away the most popular event – though that 3.5 billion figure seems quite a bit out. And Strade Bianche is officially competing with – and beating some – of the five Monuments for overall viewership figures.
But there are some surprises: The so-called ‘Big-7’ stage races in the men’s WorldTour are not the big-seven when it comes to audience interest, and, perhaps surprisingly, the Simac Ladies Tour is comfortably the most-watched stage race in the women’s calendar outside of the three Grand Tours.
Let’s get into the figures.
Eyeballs on the men's peloton
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