Ohio State's season opener against Notre Dame was a massive attraction for college football fans last weekend.
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.
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.