ESPN announced that the College Football Playoff championship game on Monday drew 25 million viewers.
The audience for Michigan’s 34-13 win against Washington was up 45% from last year’s game, Georgia’s rout of TCU.
ESPN said this was the largest audience for the championship game since 2020. The audience for this year’s game peaked at 28 million viewers.
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There were high expectations for Monday’s broadcast, even projections that it could be the most-watched ever. It was a good number for ESPN, but it didn’t break records.
Last week’s semifinals, Michigan’s 27-20 win against Alabama, was the third-most watched semifinals game, getting 27. 2 million viewers and peaking at 32.8 million.
It was the most-watched three-game playoff since the fourth year, ESPN said.
The audience for Monday’s game was the fourth-best non-NFL sports audience since 2018.
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Here are the College Football Playoff championship games in order of largest TV audience:
| Game | Season | TV audience |
| Ohio State 42, Oregon 20 | 2014 | 34.2 million |
| Alabama 26, Georgia 23 (OT) | 2017 | 28.4 million |
| Alabama 45, Clemson 40 | 2015 | 26.2 million |
| LSU 42, Clemson 25 | 2019 | 25.6 million |
| Clemson 44, Alabama 16 | 2018 | 25.3 million |
| Clemson 35, Alabama 31 | 2016 | 25.3 million |
| Michigan 34, Washington 13 | 2023 | 25.0 million |
| Georgia 33, Alabama 18 | 2021 | 22.6 million |
| Alabama 52, Ohio State 24 | 2020 | 18.7 million |
| Georgia 65, TCU 7 | 2022 | 17.2 million |