Michigan-Ohio State Draws the Highest College Football TV Audience of 2023

The Wolverines-Buckeyes clash doubled the viewership of Colorado-Oregon.

Saturday’s annual clash between Michigan and Ohio State may have been the most anticipated matchup of the 2023–24 college football season. The game’s TV viewership fulfilled those expectations.

Fox’s telecast drew an average of 19.1 million viewers, per The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch. That number makes it the most-watched college football broadcast of the season. It’s also the highest viewership ever for a regular-season game on the network. The audience peaked at 22.9 million from 3:30 to 3:45 p.m. ET.

Michigan’s 30–24 victory also doubled the audience from the season’s previous top-rated broadcast. Week 4’s Colorado-Oregon matchup on Sept. 23 drew 10.03 million viewers for the ABC telecast. 

Last season’s game between the Buckeyes and Wolverines averaged 17.14 million viewers and that was an increase from the 2021 matchup, which drew an audience of 15.83 million tuned in. Sign-stealing allegations against Michigan arguably being the biggest story of the college football season, may have contributed to the 11% percent increase in viewers over 2022. 

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The 2023 Michigan-Ohio State game doubled the audience from Colorado-Oregon, the season’s previous largest viewership.  :: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch/USA TODAY NETWORK

The highest viewership for a Michigan-Ohio State game was 21.04 million in 2006. Like this season, both teams came into the clash undefeated, and legendary Wolverines coach Bo Schembechler died the day before the game. 

Since 2014, every game between the Big Ten rivals has averaged more than 10 million viewers, per Sports Media Watch.

The audience was the largest for a regular season game since 2011’s LSU-Alabama tilt, which drew 20 million viewers.