The BET Awards came with a new energy this year, and its ratings reflect that with some of the highest engagement the event has seen in six years.
The network reported Thursday (July 2) that the televised award show this past Sunday hit its highest viewership ratings among adults 18-49 since 2019. This increase in impressions was 50% year-over-year, with 624,000 impressions this year versus 415,000 in 2025. The show’s coverage rating was also up 71% from the year before, with 2.6 million viewers across 12 Paramount networks and 1.4 million viewers watching on BET.
Young women were some of the biggest drivers in television engagement, with viewership increases of 106% among women ages 18-34 and 144% among women ages 18-24.
Hosted by content creator and comedian Druski, the youngest ever host of the event, this year’s BET Awards received spikes in engagement across television, social media, digital, and live experiences. The event, dubbed “Culture’s Biggest Night,” received a 187% growth in digital views, and a 173% jump in livestream impressions, and 9.3 million social media interactions. A record high of over 50,000 attendees showed up to the BET Experience weekend, which included Celebrity Basketball, the live Hollywood Bowl show with Nas and The Roots, and FanFest.
“The strength of the BET brand is that it lives at the very center of Black culture, and this weekend proved it once again,” Louis Carr, President of BET, said in a statement. “BET convenes culture and community better than anyone, and that position is ours alone.”
From leveraging the viral power of Druski to its trending moments with powerhouse artists like Lauryn Hill, the BET Awards also landed at #5 on the top Google Trends search that day. Hill, who was honored with an Icon award alongside Teyana Taylor and former Epic Records CEO Sylvia Rhone, was the #2 most searched topic on Google Trends.
“Our team poured everything into a show built to honor the culture at the highest level,” Connie Orlando, EVP of Specials, Music Programming & Music Strategy and Executive Producer of the BET Awards said in a statement.
“To see it resonate this powerfully means everything.”
