NEW YORK—An estimated 32.6 million people watched President Donald J. Trump deliver the 2026 State of the Union address on Tuesday, February 24, according to Nielsen.
Of those viewers, 2,047,000 were aged 18 to 34.
Nielsen’s historical data noted that the 2026 speech was down from the 36.6 million who viewed Trump’s 2025 SOTU, but above President Biden’s speeches in 2024 (32.2 million), 2023 (27.3 million) and 2021 (26.96 million).
It was however lower than Biden’s SOTU in 2022 (38.19 million) and notably lower than Trump’s SOTUs during his first administration, which attracted between 37 million and 47 million viewers.
It was also much lower than the 6 most popular State of the Union speeches of the 21st century, led by 62.06 million for President George W. Bush’s 2003 speech, followed by President Barack Obama’s 2009 (52.37 million), Bush’s 2002 (51.77 million), Obama’s 2010 (48 million), Trump’s 2017 (47.74 million) and Trump’s 2019 (46.78 million) speeches.
