Ohio State-Michigan Draws 18.4M, Most-Watched CFB Game This Year

College football’s biggest rivalry delivered in huge fashion for Fox last weekend.

The network said late Thursday that it averaged 18.4 million viewers for its Nov. 29 coverage of Ohio State and Michigan. The audience is the biggest for any college football game on any network this season, and tops Fox’s season-opening broadcast of the Buckeyes and Texas, which averaged 16.66 million viewers. 

Anticipation was very high going into the game, even beyond the history of the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry, and the audience now represents the second-most-watched college football broadcast in the regular season on Fox. 

The audience peaked at 20.54 million, and the average viewership represented a 49% increase from last year’s Ohio State-Michigan game. The comparable 2023 figure of 19.06 million, however, still tops this year’s draw. 

Skid Snapped

The Buckeyes ended a four-year losing streak to the Wolverines, winning 27–9. The victory further solidified Ohio State, already the defending national champions, as the No. 1 team in the country going into this weekend’s conference championship games.

Ohio State will face Indiana on Saturday night for the Big Ten championship, and a victory there would further solidify the Buckeyes as the top seed going into the College Football Playoff. 

The historic draw for college football was part of a big holiday weekend that also historic audience for the NFL on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday.