Extreme E Inaugural Race Reaches 18.7 Million, China Leading Consumer

Extreme E have revealed their inaugural race reached a global audience of 18.7 million, with more than one billion impressions on social media.

The data gathered by YouGov Sport showed the electric SUV series race in Al Ula, Saudi Arabia reached 180 countries and had a potential reach of 900 million households.

Extreme E partnered with various broadcasters across the world including Sky Sports and Red Bee Media to broadcast the first race with more than 1,500 hours of coverage broadcasted.

China was the highest in most content consumed while the United Kingdon (UK) and the United States (US) were the top countries in readerships, with 5 000 online articles published and a total readership of 1.6 billion, as well as strong performances on social media in the form of Facebook and Tiktok.

Following the success of the race in China, Extreme E signed a new broadcast partnership with Chinese broadcaster CCTV for the remainder of the season.

Extreme E chief marketing officer, Ali Russell, said the event was a success and cited the strong social media and broadcast performance.

“These numbers demonstrate the massive appeal, not only of our racing format, but also our wider messages around the climate crisis, both of which featured heavily in our broadcast,” said Russell.

“As a sport without spectators on site, these figures are fantastic as they show our broadcast only model really does work to engage people on so many levels, whether that be through broadcast, social or press.

“We are looking forward to building on these statistics as we continue through [the season] and bringing the messages of our series around environment, electrification and equality to as many people as possible,” he said.