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Monday’s college national championship game between Ohio State and Notre Dame brought in an impressive audience.
The matchup, which saw the Buckeyes take victory over the Fighting Irish, scored 22.1 million viewers on Monday night, according to Nielsen viewing figures. The game peaked with 26.1 million viewers from 8:30-8:45 p.m. ET.
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 kickoffs across all networks.
The Ohio State-Notre Dame saw Ohio State win their 9th national title, defeating Notre Dame 34-23. The game took place in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.
