22.1M Watched The National College Football Championship

The first year of the expanded College Football Playoff (CFP) saw a 12% drop in viewership for the championship game compared to last year. Ohio State’s 34-23 victory over Notre Dame drew 22.1 million viewers across ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU1. This was significantly lower than the 25 million viewers for last year's Michigan-Washington game. The game faced competition from Inauguration Day coverage and fell on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday

The Buckeyes’ title victory averaged 22.1 million million viewers, ESPN announced Wednesday. That’s the most-watched game of the expanded College Football Playoff, but a decrease from last year’s national championship between Washington and Michigan, which averaged 25.05 million.

The national championship was hours after President Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony, but coverage continued throughout the day. That could have played a role in the drop in viewership from 2024. Still, the title game was the most watched sporting event – outside of the NFL – since last year’s championship.

According to The Wrap, the game currently ranks as the most-watched non-NFL sporting event over the past year, and drew the biggest audience of the inaugural 12-team college football playoffs.

The Ohio State-Notre Dame game followed up on the 2025 inauguration of Donald Trump, which brought in an average total viewership of 24.59 million from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET across 15 networks, including in the viewership include ABC, CBS, NBC, Merit Street Media, Telemundo, Univision, CNBC, CNN, CNNe, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation and PBS.

Monday night’s game saw a slightly bigger audience Rose Bowl game between Oregon and Ohio State, which scored 21.1 million viewers. By comparison the delayed Sugar Bowl between Notre Dame and Georgia drew a viewership of 15.8 million.

On Saturday, the game between the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs became ESPN’s most-watched NFL game ever with an average viewership of 32.7 million. The matchup scored the biggest Saturday afternoon kickoff audience in ten seasons since 2016, including all 4:30 p.m. ET kicks across all networks.