MTV’s Video Music Awards returned to Los Angeles with a bang, bringing in its biggest audience since 2015.
The star-studded show, which aired live from the Peacock Theater, scored 8.43 million viewers across CBS and MTV, which also included an encore run on MTV, according to fast national live-plus-same-day Nielsen figures.
That’s up 51% from the 2025 show, which brought in 5.6 million viewers across CBS and MTV, also including the MTV encore. Last year’s viewership marked a six-year high as it simulcast on CBS for the first time, but the 2026 telecast broke those records as it scored the best same-day audience since the 2015 show, when the show scored 12.73 million viewers just on MTV.
Viewership for the VMAs peaked with over 15 million viewers during the opening act, which saw Madonna perform at the show for the first time in 23 years alongside Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX.
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On CBS, the Snoop Dogg-hosted show averaged 7.61 million viewers, rising 52% from last year’s viewership of 5 million. MTV’s simulcast averaged 686,000 viewers, up 40% from last year’s show, which scored 491,000.
The 2026 show was the most-watched VMAs in the 18-49 demo since 2018 with 2.66 million demo viewers, as well as the most-watched show in the 25-54 demo since 2019 with 3.11 million demo viewers. Likewise, the show brought in 1.14 million viewers in the 18-34 demo, marking the most-watched show in the demo since 2020.
The VMAs ranked as the day’s most social program as it scored 31.1 million interactions and 159 million video views, rising 8% from last year. Additionally, the show scored the No. 1 spot on X worldwide as it trended in 10 countries and generated 18 related trending topics.
The show, which also featured Taylor Swift as she accepted her MTV VMA artist director honors and debuted her new music video for “Patient Zero,” was slated to begin at 4:30 p.m. PT/7:30 p.m. ET, but was delayed due to the NFL game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Dallas Cowboys.
