CFP Title Game Draws 22 Million Viewers, Down 12% From Last Year

The College Football Playoff championship game was hit with a notable viewership dip in Year 1 of the expanded 12-team Playoff format.

Ohio State’s win over Notre Dame averaged 22.1 million viewers Monday on ESPN networks, down 12% from last year’s game between Michigan and Washington that drew 25.1 million. That number is up 28.5% compared to the 17.2 million who tuned in to TCU and Georgia’s title game in 2023.

Due to the expanded Playoff format, the title game was played after the second week of January for the first time in the CFP era. The latest date the championship game was played in the CFP era was Jan. 13 during the 2019–2020 season. 

This year’s game also fell on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Next year’s game is scheduled for Jan. 19—also a Monday and MLK Day.

It likely also didn’t help nationwide viewership that the two teams in the title game are from the same region. Notre Dame’s campus in South Bend, Ind., is less than 300 miles away from Ohio State’s campus in Columbus, Ohio.

The viewership decline in the title game is in line with the trend from the semifinals. The two games averaged 19.2 million viewers, a 17% decline from the 23.2 million last year. However, last season’s games were played on New Year’s Day, a holiday commonly associated with college football.

The first CFP quarterfinal games were scheduled on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1—though the tragic attack in New Orleans pushed the Sugar Bowl to Jan. 2—and those four games delivered 16.9 million viewers during the holiday season. That average is comparable to the low end of the semifinals viewership in the CFP era.

However, the numbers do not mean the first year of the expanded format was a failure. The format was meant to increase the volume of high-profile games, and it delivered in that respect. Even the first round of the CFP averaged 10.6 million viewers, which is higher than all but four regular-season games.