Something that needs to be kept in mind is that by the time of the murder trial, OJ had been retired from playing football since 1979; he would later be inducted on his first ballot for the Hall of Fame in 1985 and to this day still makes it onto experts’ All-Time teams.

However, OJ had kept himself in the public eye by both getting into endorsements - People Magazine said that through his charisma and amiable persona OJ had become the “first black athlete to become a bona fide lovable media superstar”. OJ himself said an endorsement with Hertz brought his recognition up from thirty percent to ninety (I have no idea how he quantified this) as well as raking in major profits for Hertz. A 1971 article from New York said that OJ could have retired that week if he wanted to thanks to early-in-his-career deals with Chevrolet and ABC.

This of course also needs to make note of his acting career, which he had begun before his time in the NFL, but began getting bigger roles towards the end of his sports career. He had been a cast member of the widely popular and acclaimed Roots, a main cast member of the Naked Gun movies, and had generally found himself in several made-for-TV projects that drew high ratings. OJ may not have been the current football star, but his appeal and consistent exposure were undeniable.

But to properly examine why it was such a big deal, we need to look beyond OJ. We need to look at entertainment at the time of the murder and trial, and there’s one big factor here: OJ Simpson’s chase and trial began the rise of reality television.

In a world where there’s a constant feed of celebrity news thanks to social media, a star being accused of such a thing as murder isn’t quite as big of a deal - just look at Alec Baldwin’s case. However, in 1994? That’s a different story. While reality television arguably had its roots in the 1970s with the PBS show An American Family, the OJ chase in particular became a major deal as an estimated 95 million Americans were already watching prime time programming when channels interrupted to broadcast it. This led Hollywood executives to realize that adding the appeal of celebrity and drama to the documentary nature of shows like The Real World would raise ratings, and therefore raise profits. Something like the OJ case was generally unheard of.

And of course, there was the race part of the trial. OJ, being a black man, divided millions of Americans on whether or not he did it. Mind you, the Los Angeles race riots in the wake of the Rodney King trial were also fresh in the minds of the American people, having only happened two years prior.

So, to put it simply: a combination of the unusual scenario of a celebrity in a highly publicized police chase and trial in an age before social media, recent race tensions, and said celebrity being known as a lovable person and well-known public figure led to the OJ Simpson trial being one of the most important and well known events of the 1990s and - as asked by your question - became followed by millions due to the circumstances of the public figure and sheer viewing numbers of the police chase.

I hope this helps, OP!