Although pretty much everything in college football has changed over the last couple seasons, one thing that remains constant is the unique tradition of the Army-Navy game.
While there are some calls to tinker with the tradition of playing the game after conference championship games and move it to Week 0 (looking at you Joel Klatt), the audience numbers suggest that the Army-Navy game shouldn’t go anywhere anytime soon.
This year’s contest drew a massive 9.4 million viewers on CBS Sports, the highest number for the rivalry since 1990. Navy pulled off the upset over Army, winning 31-13 over the 22nd ranked Black Knights.
Saturday’s Army-Navy Game presented by @USAA, averaged 9.4 million viewers on CBS, marking the largest audience for the rivalry since at least 1990.
America’s Game previous high was 8.45 million in 1992.#ArmyNavy x @CBSSports pic.twitter.com/6baXLqeZUO
— Army-Navy Game (@ArmyNavyGame) December 18, 2024
To help put that audience number in perspective, it’s higher than Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on ABC earlier this year that drew 7.7 million viewers. It also outdrew every NBA playoff game outside the Finals.
As far as the competition in the college football world, it ranks as by far the most watched game that didn’t involve a team from the Power 2 conferences – the Big Ten and SEC. According to Sports Media Watch, it falls at #11 in the most watched games of the regular season, just behind Texas-Texas A&M over rivalry weekend and just ahead of the big Ohio State-Indiana game.
The Army-Navy game has been boosted in recent years by the quality of play of the two teams. Their combined win total of 19 entering the game was the highest for the two storied schools in the 125 year history of the rivalry. Army was even a dark horse for a College Football Playoff spot before they were beaten soundly by Notre Dame.
There was some controversy over the fact that the game wasn’t quite a standalone contest this year, having to share the calendar with the Salute to Veterans bowl between South Alabama and Western Michigan. But it certainly didn’t hurt viewership or interest.