While it didn’t hit the highs of Michigan’s overtime win over Alabama in the Rose Bowl last week, the Wolverines’ National Championship victory over Washington on Monday was the most-watched title game in four years.
Michigan’s win averaged 25.05 million viewers across ESPN’s MegaCast coverage, making it the most-watched National Championship game since Joe Burrow led LSU to a 42-25 win over Trevor Lawrence and Clemson in 2020 (25.59 million).
The game was also significantly up from last year’s title game. Georgia’s blowout win over TCU averaged just 17.223 million viewers.
Last week, the Rose Bowl semifinal averaged 27.2 million viewers.
Despite not living up to the bar set by the Rose Bowl, Michigan-Washington still drew a mostly strong audience. Of the ten title games in the Playoff era, it ranks seventh, ahead of the 2021-23 editions and behind every title game from 2015-2020. However, the gap between those games and this one isn’t massive, especially considering the drop in cable households suffered by ESPN. Only three title games topped 26 million viewers, with three more coming in at the low-to-mid 25 million mark. Out-of-home viewing also wasn’t counted before the 2021 title game.
Michigan also finishes the season by playing in the three most-watched games of the 2023 season. In addition to the Rose Bowl and the title game, the Wolverines’ win over Ohio State on Fox averaged 19.07 million viewers, the most-watched game of the regular season.
Viewership over 25 million, which we saw for both the Rose Bowl and National Championship, is the type of thing ESPN likely had in mind when nearing a deal to extend its exclusive rights to the College Football Playoff another six seasons. While the early-round games in the expanded Playoff won’t draw nearly that mark, ESPN is betting on continued strong viewership for the semifinals and finals of the 12-team Playoff if it’s going to be paying over $1 billion annually for the rights.
