Ohio State’s 34-23 national championship game win against Notre Dame on Jan. 21 was witnessed by a vast national audience. ESPN announced on Wednesday that the title game battle between the two college football powerhouses drew an average 22.1 million viewers with a peak of 26.1 million viewers from 8:30-8:45 p.m., making it the most-watched non-NFL sporting event since the Buckeyes’ 41-21 win over No. 1 Oregon at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.
Ohio State’s national championship game victory over the Fighting Irish continued an impressive run of viewership for Buckeye playoff games this season. It was the third time over 19 million people tuned into an Ohio State game in the CFP, joining the Buckeyes’ win over Oregon at the Rose Bowl (21.1 million) and their thrilling 28-14 Cotton Bowl victory over Texas at the Cotton Bowl (19.6 million).
Ohio State’s first-round matchup against Tennessee drew 14.3 million viewers, but it was the most-watched game of that round, as were the Oregon and Texas games.
The Buckeyes — who, according to The Athletic, averaged 6.8 million viewers per game in the regular season, second-most in college football behind Georgia with 8.6 million — also played in several of the most-watched games of the regular season. Those included Ohio State’s losses to Michigan on Nov. 30 (12.3 million) and Oregon (10.2 million) and its top-five wins against Penn State (9.94 million) and Indiana (9.33 million).
Despite the high ratings for the Buckeyes in the championship game, they still drew a lower audience than Michigan did for its 2023 national title game win over Washington last January, which drew an average audience of 25.05 million.
The Buckeyes and Irish also drew the fifth-lowest audience for a title game audience since the debut of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998, according to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch.
