The resurgence of the Army/Navy game continues unabated.
Last Saturday’s Army/Navy college football game had a 5.0 final rating and 7.9 million viewers on CBS, up 11% in ratings and viewership from last year (4.5, 7.1M) and up 22% and 27%, respectively, from 2014 (4.1, 6.3M).
Army’s first win over Navy since 2001 delivered the largest audience for the game since 1992, when coverage earned 8.4 million on ABC. This year’s 24-year high comes on the heels of a 21-year high last year and a 15-year high in 2014.
Saturday’s game was also the highest rated edition of the rivalry since 1999 (5.1), marking the sixth straight year — and the seventh of the past eight — that ratings have hit at least a ten-year high.
Army/Navy has surged in popularity since moving to the week after college football’s conference championship games in 2009. Ratings had been on the decline in the years before the move, dropping from a 3.0 in 2005 to an all-time low of 2.0 in 2008.
For the season, Army/Navy tied the eighth-highest college football rating on any network and earned the 13th-largest audience. Keep in mind it was one of just three games all season to air completely unopposed, along with Notre Dame/Texas (6.4, 10.9M) and Mississippi/Florida State (4.8, 8.4M) on Labor Day weekend.
UPDATE 12/22: The 1992 game had 8.4 million viewers, not the 8.2 million previously stated.
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 12/14, with additional info from CBS Sports)
