College football’s championship game drew 25.59m US viewers on television, marking the best cable television audience in the country in more than two years.
The College Football Playoff National Championship, shown January 13 on ESPN and won by Louisiana State University, posted 1 per cent audience growth from last year, marking the highest viewership on US cable, regardless of content type or genre, since the 2018 CFP title matchup between Alabama and Georgia that drew 28.44m viewers.
The event, drawing numbers somewhat similar to the individual game draws during to the recent NFL Wild Card playoff weekend, further serves as testimony for the US’ continuing love affair with American football. The audience number for the college football title game far surpasses those for nearly every recent game in Major League Baseball’s World Series, the National Basketball Association Finals, or hockey’s Stanley Cup Finals.
ESPN once again broadcast the CFP title game through its MegaCast strategy that featured 15 different variants of game coverage across ESPN’s portfolio of platforms, offering a wide variety of camera angles not typically available in US pro sports telecasts.
With the title game now complete, the entire three-game CFP averaged 21.65m viewers in the US, up 4 per cent from a year ago.
College Football Playoff Championship History
YEAR MATCHUP US VIEWERS
2020 LSU-Clemson 25.59m
2019 Clemson-Alabama 25.28m
2018 Alabama-Georgia 28.44m
2017 Clemson-Alabama 25.27m
2016 Alabama-Clemson 26.13m
