As sports have made they returns from Covid, so too have the strong ratings. Strong showings have been reported in recent weeks regarding the NBA playoffs and the Indy 500 among others, and that trend continued over the weekend. ESPN announced on Friday that ratings are up 23 percent from 2016 for the UEFA EURO 2020 entering the knockout round, which began Saturday.

According to the Worldwide Leader, the 36 group stage matches averaged an audience of 869,000 viewers, up from an average of 707,000 from 2016. The match between Portugal and Germany averaged 1.83 million viewers, which was the most for a group stage since Italy-Spain saw 2.19 million viewers in 2012.

The top five group stage matches this year all outpaced the most-watched group stage match in 2016. The quality ratings figure to continue into the knockout stage as 13 of the 16 teams left are currently in the top 20 of the FIFA World Rankings. That list includes eye-catchers like Portugal, Spain, France, England, and Germany.

Matches continue on Monday beginning with Croatia and Spain at 11:30 a.m. on ESPN.