Ohio State's Season Opener Against Notre Dame Drew 10.5 Million Viewers, the Most of Any College Football Game in Week 1

Per ShowBuzzDaily, the matchup drew 10.5 million viewers on Saturday – the most of any college football game in the Week 1 slate. The top-five showdown between the Buckeyes and Fighting Irish had ESPN's College GameDay in attendance and featured plenty of intriguing storylines leading up to the contest, helping the game attract 3 million more viewers than second-place Florida State and LSU.

The Seminoles and Tigers drew 7.55 million viewers as the night cap for college football played on Sunday. Defending national champion Georgia's season-opening contest against Oregon brought in 6.3 million viewers in the 3:30 p.m. window on Saturday before Ohio State battled Notre Dame.

College football is back!

Top 4 most-watched week 1 CFB games:

Notre Dame/Ohio State: 10.5 million viewers
Florida St/LSU: 7.554M
Oregon vs Georgia: 6.2M
Colorado St/Michigan: 3.9M

All the rest on @ShowBuzzDailys great weekly Skedballhttps://t.co/YHEh7jumGL

— Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) September 7, 2022

Additionally, Ohio State and Notre Dame drew more viewers than any other regular season game in college football last year except for the Ohio State/Michigan game, which attracted more than 15 million viewers. Ohio State’s other 11 games last year brought in roughly 5 million viewers per contest.

Per ESPN, the Ohio State/Notre Dame game – which was broadcast on ABC – was the most-watched regular season game on an ESPN network since 2017 (the first year Fox began broadcasting the Ohio State/Michigan game). The game drew a whopping 31.9 metered market rating in Columbus, with more than 10% of households tuning in to watch the game in all of Ohio’s four metered markets.

This past weekend, @OhioStAthletics fans across the state of O-H-I-O tuned in to ABC's top-5 college football showdown

The @NDFootball vs @OhioStateFB telecast is the most-watched regular season game on ESPN networks since 2017 pic.twitter.com/azfYsMOfMO

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) September 7, 2022