Scores for the Oscars have surprisingly improved since 2021, regardless of the frequent doom and gloom seen on-line for the celebrated awards present. It’s true that viewership for the Academy Awards has dropped considerably for the reason that Nineteen Nineties, the place the occasion would simply rake in additional than 40 million to 55 million viewers on ABC. However as broadcast and cable tv has declined within the face of streaming and on-demand providers, this determine dipped to an all-time low of 10 million in 2021. That mentioned, the Oscars has steadily recovered since then and is taking significant steps to make sure its longevity.
Scores for the Oscars have improved over the past 5 years
As a result of COVID pandemic, the 93rd Academy Awards that occurred in April 2021 solely had a dismal complete of 10.4 million viewers. The ceremony, set in Union Station as an alternative of the standard Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, was a a lot smaller affair that didn’t have as a lot star energy. By comparability, the 2019 Oscars the place Inexperienced Brook gained Greatest Image had about 29 million viewers, and the 2020 Oscars that noticed the Korean movie Parasite win Greatest Image had roughly 23 million. It appeared like this sharp decline can be a dying knell for the present.
Fortuitously, the Academy Awards have gained again a few of its momentum, climbing to 16.6 million viewers for the 2022 ceremony. This has step by step improved to 18.7 million viewers in 2023, 19.5 million in 2024, and 19.69 million in 2025, with final 12 months’s iteration combining rankings from ABC and Hulu. Hopefully, this development will proceed with the upcoming 98th Oscars, which is able to air on Sunday, March 15.
From a chook’s-eye view, the 19.69 million determine won’t appear that spectacular in comparison with figures from a decade in the past, however that’s nonetheless one of many largest — if not the largest — viewership numbers for a non-sporting occasion on tv.
The Academy acknowledges that streaming is the longer term
These rankings are additionally shocking given the broader development of conventional linear TV being supplanted by streaming providers, like Netflix and Hulu.
As famous by Cord Cutters, outstanding networks like CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox have all skilled vital drops in viewership from 2020 to 2025. Inside this five-year time interval, CBS noticed a dip of round 20% from 5.6 million to 4.4 million viewers in primetime, whereas ABC slipped by about 10% from 4.5 million to 4 million. In the meantime, in June 2025 {industry} analyst Nielsen reported that streaming represented 44.8% of complete TV viewership, greater than each broadcast and cable mixed (44.2%).
On high of that, audiences are spending much less of their time in theaters. A 2025 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center studies that 53% of U.S. adults had not seen a film within the final 12 months, whereas 7% by no means seen a movie in a movie show ever. Because of this it’s tougher for audiences to observe any films nominated for an Oscar until they change into accessible on considered one of a number of streaming providers. And if individuals aren’t in a position to see these movies, it’s much less possible that they’d be invested in watching the Oscars within the first place. Given these obstacles, it’s spectacular that the Academy Awards has managed to carry onto the viewership that it has.
Whereas there’s little that the Oscars can do in regards to the industry-wide fracturing of how movies are seen by audiences, it has acknowledged its personal downside of sticking to conventional broadcast TV. Even with Hulu serving to to bolsters its numbers for the 2025 Oscars, the show has decided to move to YouTube in 2029. The brand new deal acknowledges the shift towards streaming and can see your complete ceremony be broadcast without spending a dime around the globe, making it far simpler for worldwide viewers to observe the present. It stays to be seen whether or not this transfer will payoff, however the rising dominance of streaming ought to work in its favor.
