Death. Taxes. Massive ratings numbers for the annual Ohio State-Michigan game.
Fox Sports announced Thursday that the undefeated Buckeyes’ 27-9 win over the Wolverines last Saturday garnered 18.4 million viewers, making it the most-watched regular-season college football game and the second most-watched regular-season game in Fox history.
That makes it the fifth straight year that The Game was the most-watched regular-season game, not counting conference championships. Only the 2023 game, which featured both teams undefeated, had a higher rating (19.1 million).
All eyes were on The Game 📺👀
Ohio State’s win over Michigan tallied 18.4M viewers on FOX. The most-watched regular-season college football game on ANY network this season. pic.twitter.com/ze63D0A1PJ
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) December 4, 2025
Fox said the game, which kicked off at 12 p.m. ET, peaked at 20.535 million viewers from 2:30 to 2:45 p.m.
As always, it’s worth noting that this is the first year Nielsen began using its updated Big Data + Panel methodology, which significantly expands OOH viewing.
The Game also boosted lead-in programming for both Fox and ESPN.
Just like The Game, BIG NOON KICKOFF delivers 🏈
Starting at 11 AM ET, BIG NOON KICKOFF scored 4,358,000 viewers on FOX – the second most-watched @BNKonFOX ever 🥈
The 2025 season was BIG NOON KICKOFF’s most-watched season in history 🥇 pic.twitter.com/3skKtoBCEy
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) December 4, 2025
Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff announced that it drew 4,358,000 viewers from 11:00 a.m. to the show’s end, making it the second-most-watched program in show history. That number also topped College GameDay over that timeframe, as ESPN’s flagship college football show saw 3.9 million viewers across that hour. It’s worth noting that BNK went long through around 12:14 p.m. on Saturday while GameDay signed off a few minutes after 12:00 p.m., which likely siphoned off some viewers who were getting ready to watch The Game.
🟡 @collegegameday‘s trip to @Umich was the second-most watched reg. season ep. EVER!
🏈 3.1M avg. viewers, 4.5M peak
🏈 Full telecast beat the competition by 31%
🏈 Final hr avg. 3.9M
🏈 On pace for best season ever, up 23% YoY
🏈 1.0M viewers via @patmcafeeshow‘s X account pic.twitter.com/yEqNhF2e6l— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) December 4, 2025
Otherwise, GameDay put up bigger numbers over the course of the morning, averaging 3.1 million viewers and peaking at 4.5 million to make it their second-most-watched show ever. Per ESPN, CGD’s ratings were 31 percent higher than “the competition” across the morning.
Numbers and semantics aside, the point is, a crapton of people watch Ohio State vs. Michigan every year without fail.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.