The recent historic win at the Kentucky Derby was also a record maker in a number of other ways. According to NBC Sports, 24.4 million tuned in to the live broadcast of the 2026 Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 3rd.
The Kentucky Derby remains the longest-running sporting event in United States history and somehow managed to beat its previous viewership record, which was set in 1989, by 11 percent.
One would think that a sport like horse racing wouldn’t be that popular in modern-day society, given how often sports including animals have been under harsher scrutiny. Surprisingly, horse racing and other horse sports have maintained a steady popularity amongst younger generations, not just in America but also globally.
Internet culture and memes have done most of the legwork to pull new, younger viewers’ interest in the sport. Similar to how popular cat videos get, horse videos have grown to be just about or nearly equal in popularity. Additionally, Horse racing has also seen its popularity spike by unlikely sources, like mobile games and even anime. Umamusume: Pretty Derby, a popular Japanese multimedia franchise surrounding anthropomorphized racehorses from the Japanese Derby, has recently achieved a global fanbase since the worldwide release of its mobile game in 2021.
Its popularity has grown so much that it has become an official sponsor of the 2026 Kentucky Derby event. If this momentum continues, derbies like the Kentucky Derby won’t have to survive purely off of historical significance alone and will manage to keep their staying power for decades to come.
