According to a release from Fox, Ohio State’s game against Texas was the most-watched Week 1 game in college football history. The game scored an average of 16.6 million viewers, peaking at over 18.5 million viewers in the second half (from 3:00 PM to 3:15).
For comparison, last year’s biggest game of Week 1 averaged 9.2 million viewers. And that game (USC vs. LSU) was a Sunday game, with no competition for viewers from other college football games.
In fact, 16 million viewers is already better than the most-watched regular season game from last year. The only non-College Football Playoff game to get more viewers was the SEC Championship Game, which also pulled in 16.6 million viewers (about 10,000 more than Ohio State-Texas just did). 16.6 million is also more viewers than every single first-round game of last year’s Playoff, and more than two quarterfinal games.
This is also the third-most-watched regular-season game ever on Fox (remember, in the first half of the BCS years the National Championship Game was on Fox), trailing only the 2022 and 2023 Ohio State-Michigan games.
As much as fans (and lawmakers) say they’re annoyed by noon games, their viewership patterns say something else. Noon games are working for Fox, so they’re not likely to abandon them anytime soon.
This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: Ohio State-Texas was most-watched Week 1 college football game of all time
Reporting by Yesh Ginsburg, Buckeyes Wire / Buckeyes Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
