IndyCar’s move to FOX for the 2025 season brought solid network viewership for the Honda Indy Toronto, drawing an average audience of 734,000 viewers for Sunday’s race. This number marks the most-watched Toronto edition since 2012, but highlights both progress and continuing challenges for the series’ reach on network television.
Direct year-over-year viewing comparisons for the Toronto event are unavailable, as last year’s race aired on NBC’s Peacock streaming service, where no public audience figures were released. However, the most recent linear TV benchmark for the event comes from 2019, when the Toronto race drew 504,000 viewers—the last time it was shown on national television before moving to streaming. The 2025 figure of 734,000 represents a significant improvement over that mark, reflecting the impact of FOX’s wider broadcast footprint.
Despite this increase, the number still falls short of the benchmark set by the ABC broadcast in 2012, which drew 1.129 million viewers. This result is part of a mixed start for the new IndyCar-FOX partnership, which began with a strong 1.4 million viewers for the season opener at St. Petersburg, but has since seen audiences dip below the coveted one-million mark for subsequent races.
Fan reactions have been divided, with some celebrating the increased exposure on network TV, while others voiced concern that numbers did not reach expectations often associated with a major broadcaster like FOX. While the Toronto race topped network results from the NBC era, its viewership underscores both FOX’s promotional strides and the remaining work needed to grow IndyCar’s mainstream audience in a competitive U.S. sports environment.
As the season heads into its final stretch, FOX and IndyCar will be focused on recapturing and sustaining the momentum seen at the season's outset—with fans and industry observers closely watching every broadcast number as a gauge of the sport’s ongoing growth and visibility.
