THE “2025 MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS” DELIVERS ITS LARGEST TELEVISION AUDIENCE SINCE 2019, UP +42% FROM LAST YEAR

Written By itsjacoblee

Last night’s 2025 MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS hosted by LL COOL J was the #1 entertainment program of the night, hitting a six-year viewership high and seen by more than 5.5 million viewers on the CBS Television Network, simulcast on MTV and streaming on Paramount+. The awards show was up against the “Sunday Night Football” time-period premiere (Raven vs Bills) and finished second in its time period.

  • Watched by more than 5.5 million viewers – #1 Entertainment Program of the night.

  • Most-watched day-of-event VMAs since 2019.

  • Audience up +42% from last year’s airing on MTV and simulcast on other Paramount networks (3.91m).

  • Most-watched entertainment special on CBS since The Grammy Awards.

  • Third-largest live-streamed entertainment event this year on Paramount+, only behind The Grammy Awards and The Golden Globe Awards.

  • The VMAs’ voting campaign saw the best turnout in history, with 2.5 billion global votes, up +121% from last year (Source: Internal data via Telescope, 08/05/25-09/05/25).

On social media, the 2025 MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS set new records as the most viewed and most engaged VMAs in history.

  • 1 billion global video views, up +21% and 81.1 million engagements, up +6% from last year across owned social media accounts (Source: Sprinklr, 07/27/25-09/08/25).

  • #VMAs trended at #1 on X in the U.S. for three consecutive hours and in the top 10 for nine hours.

  • Globally, #VMA held the #1 worldwide trending spot on X for four consecutive hours, trended #1 in 12 countries (Source: Trends24, Getdaytrends, 09/07/25).

Ratings Source: Nielsen Time Adjusted Live+SD Fast National Data including Out-of-Home Viewing

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