The Charlie Kirk Memorial in Arizona on Sunday, September 21st, was not only noteworthy for its content and its fervent expression of Christian faith, defiant in the face of evil. No, the event was also shocking to much of the world in terms of viewership… both online and on television stations around the world.
So how many people tuned in for Erika Kirk’s incredible forgiveness of her husband’s killer? How many saw President Trump embrace her in an act of comfort? And just exactly how many eyes were watching as Trump and Elon Musk seemingly set aside their differences going forward? Let’s take a look at the numbers as of Sunday, which are sure to grow.
Fox News on YouTube had 2.16 million views for its livestream as of Sunday evening:
Charlie Kirk viewership on Fox News YouTube Channel as of 9/21/25.
The Associated Press on YouTube had 1.15 million views as of Sunday evening:
The Charlie Kirk X account had 3.3 Million views / impressions as of Sunday evening:
And the Charlie Kirk YouTube channel had 6.62 million views as of Sunday evening:
With just these four examples online, even before we discuss television ratings for the Charlie Kirk Memorial, we’re looking at 13.23 million views. If we were to add in all the other hundreds of online sources carrying the event live, would we double that number to more than 26 million views? It’s hard to say. Tracking all viewership across YouTube, X, Twitch, Facebook, etc, is nearly impossible with events such as this. Because there’s no copyright for the event, anyone could livestream the memorial… a distinct difference from other major events like the Super Bowl. Still, if just four livestreams topped 13 million views, it’s almost impossible to imagine every other stream in the world not combining to get the total viewership over 20 million.
Meanwhile, before we talk about linear television, consider that Arizona officials estimate the live audience in all venues was in excess of 200 thousand attendees.
For the traditional tube, we’re going to have to wait for Nielsen to give us the stats. And unfortunately, that means it could be five weeks or more before we know what those numbers might be. However, we likely can determine a base number using recent viewership as reported by The Hollywood Reporter in regards to how many people tuned if after Charlie Kirk was murdered.
Fox News, MSNBC and CNN all saw increased ratings Wednesday and Thursday as they offered extensive coverage of Kirk’s death by a gunman during a speaking event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday afternoon. Police arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson of Utah in connection with the murder late Thursday.
In primetime Wednesday, the three networks collectively averaged 6.89 million viewers, a 65 percent jump from the 4.17 million who watched a week earlier. Thursday’s combined audience of 6.2 million was up 72 percent from the prior week’s 3.6 million.
— Rick Porter, THR
Assuming that even half of those same viewers came back to watch the memorial, we can throw in another 3 million viewers from cable channels alone. The total is likely much higher, especially given that we’re talking about averages in the ratings listed above (as opposed to totals) and the memorial was more than five hours in length.
Ultimately, we can estimate safely that the Charlie Kirk Memorial generated between 25-30 million viewers before we even begin to estimate worldwide viewers on international channels. And that’s the baseline. The real number could be far higher.
Charlie Kirk during his interview with Tucker Carlson – YouTube, Charlie Kirk
To give an idea of how important the viewership was for Charlie Kirk’s memorial, as well as what a shock this is to the legacy media, consider that most network time was dedicated to the NFL broadcasts on Sunday. In fact, there was almost no network support. And yet, in spite of this, Charlie Kirk’s memorial pulled viewership that appears to have either met or surpassed the viewership of President Ronald Reagan’s funeral… and that was an event in which viewers may have struggled to find any channel covering something else.
All of that said, Turning Point USA is claiming a much larger number for viewership; it is one we can’t verify but we also cannot deny. According to Turning Point USA, more than 100 million viewers may have tuned into livestreams of the memorial. If that can be proven in the days ahead, that would place the viewership somewhere near Super Bowl levels of interest.
Our production and streaming partners tracked over 100 million overall streams for today’s tribute to Charlie. This is JUST what they know about. It’s likely much larger.
Over 100 million people just heard the Gospel proclaimed again and again by speaker after speaker. Truly…
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) September 22, 2025
It’s yet another reminder that the legacy media has lost its ability to filter what Americans choose to watch. And for those who wish ill to Mr. Kirk, there is perhaps no greater punishment than a memorial overflowing with remarkable faith and love being broadcast all over the world to incredible numbers of people eager to participate in a service like no other.
* Note: This article has been updated to include Turning Point USA’s estimates via Andrew Kolvet.
