MotoGP Was Huge This Year, Likely Thanks to Its Brother Vs. Brother Title Fight

MotoGP has a truly massive year, both in terms of viewers and in racing. And hot on the heels of its acquisition, it's primed for an even greater 2026.

MotoGP is coming off a truly wild year of racing, and not just because Marc Marquez secured his 9th overall championship. No, throughout the season, we saw amazing side-by-side racing, insane crashes, team insanity, behind-the-scenes drama between riders, and the sale of the whole damn series to Formula 1's Liberty Media owners. 

And that's just the tip of the overall iceberg of what happened during the 2025 season. There's so much more I'm glossing over. 

But one of the biggest things to come out of this ludicrous season was the series' overall numbers, i.e., just how many fans tuned in, came out to races, and watched everything. And wouldn't you know it, this season was the biggest on record for everything, and that's likely down not just to Marquez's 9th ring, but also probably because the biggest story of the season was the brother-on-brother title fight between Alex and Marc. The drama propelled the series forward to new, staggering heights. 

How Liberty will improve that, I don't know.

The overall series saw a staggering 12% growth in 2025, which doesn't sound all that much, but when you look at it from the perspective of that means a whopping 632 million fans reached, it's an insane growth pattern. 

According to the series, "The global fanbase surged to 632 million (+12% vs. 2024), while race weekends welcomed a record - breaking 3.6 million attendees. The season shattered nine attendance records, including an all - time high of 311, 797 at Le Mans in May - making the French GP the most attended race in MotoGP history. TV audiences grew globally by 9% on average at each Grand Prix - with viewership for the Sprint s also jumping by 26% - compared to 2024. Meanwhile MotoGP’s digital presence continued to rise with social media followers passing 60 million."

It furthered, "Engagement across those channels climbed to 61%, with fans consuming over 1 billion minutes of action on MotoGP’s official YouTube channel." That last one is surprising, as one of my biggest gripes with the series is how freakin' bad its YouTube presence is, and how you can't watch highlights like you can with its F1 sibling. Fix this, Liberty, please. 

That growth, however, likely has to do with the on-track Shakespearan drama that unfolded, as Marc and Alex Marquez continually wowed the crowds around the world with their tit-for-tat racecraft. The brothers, for a long time throughout the beginning and middle parts of the season, were beyond close to one another in terms of the overall championship. One wrong move and it could've meant the other would win, which made for edge-of-your-seat viewing each race weekend. 

You couldn't ask for better TV, honestly. 

And the culmination, one where Marc cinched the overall championship, indeliably marking himself into the history books with his 9th championship win, tying that poor sport Rossi, was nothing short of exhilarating to witness. It was a briliant season, and again, that's only like a tenth of what occurred throughout the year. So how will MotoGP top it?

That, my dear friends, is still up for debate. Next year starts a new chapter for MotoGP, as Liberty Media's takeover of the series will be complete. And it'll have the might of the brand's marketing department behind it, the same one that spurred Formula 1's insane growth over the last few years. Will MotoGP get the Drive to Survive treatment? I hope so, as more folks need to watch the insanity that is this series. But only time will tell. 

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