There are few sporting events better suited to the out-of-home viewing era than the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, which got underway Thursday with multiple viewership records.
The opening day of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament averaged a combined 9.1 million viewers per window on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, up 6% from last year and the highest on record for the opening day of play. Figures are based in part on Nielsen fast-nationals.
Arkansas-Kansas led the way with an average of 6.36 million viewers on CBS, marking the largest audience for a first round game since the current television format began in 2011. The previous high was 6.22 million for Zion Williamson-led Duke against North Dakota State in 2019. The Razorbacks’ win increased 2% from Oakland’s upset of Kentucky in the same window last year (6.21M).
As ever, record numbers require context regarding Nielsen methodology. Nielsen did not include out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020, and did not measure out-of-home viewing in all markets until earlier this year — giving this year’s games an advantage over every prior year. It is a virtual lock that both Duke-North Dakota State in ’19 and Oakland-Kentucky last year had more viewers, all things being equal, than Arkansas-Kansas.
Most-watched first round NCAA basketball tournament games under current format
The Razorbacks’ win was easily the most-watched game of the first day of play, not counting afternoon windows on CBS for which figures were unavailable. The St. John’s-Omaha nightcap had considerably fewer viewers as 3.77 million watched the Red Storm win their first tournament game in a quarter-century — actually down 18% from last year’s matchup of NC State and Texas Tech.
Overall, the early primetime window averaged a combined 5.8 rating and 12.17 million across CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, the largest audience on record for a first round window. Compared to the same window last year, ratings increased 1% and viewership 14% from a 5.7 and 10.71 million a year ago, an indication of the greater out-of-home lift this year.
Outside of Arkansas-Kansas, the window included Tennessee-Wofford at a 1.1 and 2.43 million on TNT, Drake-Missouri at a 0.9 and 1.95 million on truTV and Texas A&M-Yale at a 0.7 and 1.43 million on TBS.
Earlier this week, the “First Four” grossed a 7.4 million viewers on truTV, up 20% from last year and the highest for the event in the traditional two-day format. (The games grossed 7.8 million in 2021, when they all took place on the same day and two aired on TBS.)
In a relic from the days of a single play-in game, the “First Four” counts as a single telecast window in the overall viewership average. Including that figure, the tournament is averaging 8.8 million viewers thus far, up 8% from last year and the highest average through the opening Thursday.
Individually, Xavier-Texas topped the charts with 2.4 million viewers — the most-watched “First Four” game under the two-day format — followed by North Carolina’s rout of San Diego State at 2.2 million.
