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As the summer break finally comes to a close and we head into the latter portion of this year's Formula 1 season, one thing is for certain: 2025 has been an excellent year in F1. We looked back on F1’s midseason progress update and found four ways the sport has already made impressive waves and even toppled some of its previous records, well before the season has come to a close.
Starting the year with a big anniversary
2025 is a major milestone in F1 history, marking 75 years of the sport. To commemorate this, the F1 75 Live, a one-of-a-kind livery reveal event, was held at London's famous O2 Arena, with all 15,000 tickets selling out in 20 minutes flat.
But tickets weren't the only way to take part in this epic event. F1 also livestreamed the whole thing on their YouTube channel with a stunning 7.5 million people across 211 territories around the world tuning in to watch throughout the live broadcast. With massive numbers like that it's not surprising at all to know that this was their most successful YouTube live stream to date.
And in general, YouTube has been a big hit for F1 this year. Overall, the F1 YouTube channel grew by 19%, and viewership of race highlights has gone up by 30% compared to last year. It’s the sport’s growth in the US that seems to be driving this; with over 135 million people watching, America has become F1’s largest audience on the platform.
Reaching new heights and new audiences
With such a massive viewership for the F1 75 Live, it's of little surprise that 2025 has seen a jump in race attendance across the season so far. During the first 14 races of the year, a total of 3.9 million people were present at the circuits, cheering on their favorite drivers and teams.
Peak attendances were seen in Great Britain (500,000 people across the weekend) and Australia (465,000), with Belgium (389,000), Canada (352,000), Spain/Barcelona (300,000) and Austria (300,000) not far behind.
And with more and more people heading to races, it’s important to plan your trip and buy tickets well in advance.
Growing globally
But this phenomenon hasn’t been happening just with on-track attendance. F1’s fanbase across the entire world has been growing rapidly, reaching a monumental 827 million fans. This makes it not only the world’s most popular annual sports series, but also the most popular global sport league (in second place is the NBA, which is estimated to have a fanbase of over 740 million fans, 11.4% less than that of F1).
The number of F1 fans is expanding all over the world, from places that have been part of the sport’s history for decades, like the UK (+24% year on year), Italy (+12%), and Brazil (+9%), to much newer markets, like the US (+11%) and China (+39%). The fanbase is also becoming more diverse, especially as young people, and young women, are some of the fastest growing demographics.
F1 The Movie: a big screen blockbuster with an even bigger team behind it
F1 hasn't just been crushing it on track; they've also been crushing it off-track all summer long. F1: The Movie has been the thing everyone has been racing to movie theatres to see. Released on June 27th, it has already grossed more than $600 million USD, becoming not only Brad Pitt's biggest work but also the most successful sports film of all time.
But these numbers tell only half the story of its size. Making the movie took a crew of nearly 2,000 people, with roughly 400 crew members present at each of the 13 races they filmed. In that time, over 185 hours of race footage was shot specifically for the movie, in addition to 2,000 hours of broadcast footage. All of this came together to give an absolutely cinematic experience for both F1 fans and those brand new to it.
Cover photo via Red Bull Media Content Pool.
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