The College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship game set a 11-year viewership high, averaging 30.1 million viewers on ESPN.
Indiana’s victory over Miami gained 36 per cent more viewers than last year’s decider, and peaked at 33.2 million. It becomes the most watched national title match since Ohio State’s win in the inaugural CFP edition held during the 2014/15 season.
In addition, the Hoosiers’ triumph ranks as the fourth-most watched college football game in the past 30 years, and becomes the most watched non-National Football League (NFL) sports broadcast in the US since Game Seven in the 2016 World Series.
The viewership spike for the CFP title game came after the competition’s semi-final stage recorded its worst figures since 2014. Overall, the CFP averaged 16.3 million viewers across 11 games, with viewership up four per cent year-over-year (YoY).
Next year marks the start of the CFP’s new six-year broadcast deal with ESPN, with the Disney-owned broadcaster paying US$1.3 billion per year for the tournament. The 2026/27 CFP could also expand beyond 12 teams, with conferences still in talks over increasing the format to include more colleges.
NFL Divisional Round delivers records for ESPN
The NFL playoffs continue to be a viewership juggernaut, with the four-game round averaging 39.2 million viewers for ESPN, CBS, NBC and Foxup five per cent on last year.
NBC delivered the most watched game of the round, with an average audience of 45.4 million viewers tuning in for the Los Angeles Rams’ overtime win over the Chicago Bears. The thriller, which peaked at 52.6 million viewers, becomes NBC’s most watched NFL Divisional Round game on record.
Meanwhile, ESPN noted its coverage of the New England Patriots’ victory over the Houston Texans was its most watched event ever. The game averaged 37.9 million viewers across ESPN and ABC and peaked at 44.9 million.
It was said to be the most watched sport event shown by Disney, excluding the Super Bowl. However, it is unclear what role ABC played in helping its sister network set its record.
A day prior, CBS’ broadcast of the Denver Broncos win over the Buffalo Bills was said to be the most watched NFL playoff game ever held on a Saturday. The Broncos’ victory averaged 39.6 million viewers and peaked at 51.28 million, becoming the most watched broadcast on a Saturday for any network since CBS covered the 1994 Winter Olympics.
As for Fox, it averaged 32 million viewers for the Seattle Seahawks’ rout of the San Francisco 49ers.
The roundup:
- The Kings World Cup of Nations delivered new engagement records for the Kings League, with the tournament netting more than 120 million cumulative live stream viewers and more than 1.6 billion social media impressions.
- Amazon Prime Video’s coverage of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) games in Europe set new records. The Berlin game became the most watched regular season game on record in Germany, and became the most watched NBA game in Europe this season. Meanwhile, viewership for the London fixture was up 90 per cent on the previous game held in the English capital.
- The streamer noted that European viewership for NBA games is up 184 per cent YoY up to 2nd January 2026 over a comparable number of games, with the UK (312 per cent) and Germany (246 per cent) particularly delivering strong gains.
- The 2026 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) final delivered a peak UK audience of 1.7 million on free-to-air (FTA) network Channel 4, with more than 700,000 fans streaming the game on the E4 platform. In France, 3.4 million tuned in for Senegal’s win on commercial network M6, setting a new 18-year viewership high.
Combining richer content, in-depth data and exclusive community benefits, SportsPro+ is your VIP pass into the global sports industry. Discover more here.
