The official kickoff to the college football season provided another reminder of how football can boost audiences across all platforms, with ESPN and ABC reporting hefty increases in audiences for both linear TV and engagement on social media.
ESPN’s Nielsen-rated networks airing college football – ABC, ESPN and ESPNU – averaged 3.1 million viewers in Week 1, up 44 percent over 2023. That was the largest audience for Kickoff Week across ESPN platforms since 2016, according to a ESPN blog.
Both ABC and ESPN were up double digits over 2023, ESPN reported. ABC scored its most-watched Kickoff Week since 2016 and the second best on record, finishing up 83 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, ESPN was up 23 percent for Week 1 over the 2023 edition. Saturday, Aug. 31st was the most-viewed day of college football ever on ESPN+, and Week 1 included the top 3 regular season college football games ever on the platform.
ESPN platforms also scored the top six games across all networks in Week 1, hitting multi-year viewership highs in key windows. Additionally, this is the first time since Week 1 in 2016 that ESPN platforms have had six games in one weekend all surpass 4.0 million viewers.
Week one’s top performer was USC vs. LSU, which pulled in 9.2 million viewers on ABC. It was ABC’s third best Sunday Opener on record and ABC’s most-streamed college football game on record. Other highly rated games included Notre Dame at Texas A&M (8.2 million viewers on ABC), Clemson vs. Georgia (8.0 million viewers on ABC) and Miami at Florida (6.7 million viewers on ABC.)
In addition “College GameDay Built by The Home Depot” delivered one of its most-watched regular season episodes in the 37-year history of the show. 2.5 million viewers watched as the sport’s premier pregame show made its stateside season debut in College Station, with 3.2 million viewers tuning in for the final hour. Week 1 from Aggieland is the most-watched episode to air outside of Thanksgiving Weekend and was the most-watched regular season episode since November 2016. The audience was up 47 percent year-over-year and demolished the previous Week 1 audience record by double digits.
ESPN’s social media team created more than 1,200 pieces of content across all platforms, registering 58 million engagements – up 68 percent year-over-year – and scored 554 million video views for Week 1. The team’s viral video featuring new teammates Nick Saban and Pat McAfee is College GameDay’s most-viewed TikTok ever with 24 million views and climbing, and boasts a total of 50 million views across all ESPN platforms, ESPN noted in a blog post.
