X Games League Sticks The Landing On Summer Season With Big U.S. Audience Pop

EXCLUSIVE: The action sports team-based era seems to be paying off, as the inaugural summer of X Games League events pulled off an impressive debut over the last several weeks across Sacramento, New Orleans, and Chiba, Japan. The summer season’s events managed to reach 18.3 million viewers in the U.S. across ABC and ESPN, which is a 78.5% increase year-over-year. That includes 7.5 million return viewers, according to data from the league. Per the league, the New Orleans Championship became the highest-rated stop of the summer. That’s a solid finish for the first year of team-based X Games events after things kicked off in Sacramento last month. About 12 million U.S. viewers tuned in to watch that event. “Our goal with X Games League is to return action sports to the biggest stage and give fans a reason to come back throughout the season. This summer, more than 18 million people found X Games on TV, and our biggest audience came at the championship. We have a long way to go, but those are encouraging signals that we’re building something fans want to follow, not just watch,” Jeremy Bloom, CEO of X Games, said in a statement. Watch on Deadline The summer season concluded with a dramatic finish when, on the final run of the final event, XC New York captured the inaugural X Games League Championship, edging XC Tokyo by just 10 points to claim the first-ever League title. Fifteen-year-old female skateboard phenom Mizuho Hasegawa of XC Tokyo was named the inaugural X Games League MVP after an extraordinary season that included eight medals. Sponsored by Moonpay, the X Games League features the world’s best skateboard, BMX, and Moto X athletes competing in the new club-based XGL format.