March Madness viewership took a bit of a hit last weekend after record-setting first and second rounds.
Men’s Elite Eight viewership averaged 9.0 million viewers across CBS, TBS, and truTV last weekend, down 10% versus last year’s regional finals (10.1 million viewers), per Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch. Last year’s Elite Eight benefited from coinciding with the Easter holiday, which has become a strong viewership day in the out-of-home viewing era. Compared to 2023, when the Elite Eight did not coincide with Easter, viewership was up 4%.
As such, Sunday’s games saw the biggest year-over-year declines. Auburn’s convincing win over Michigan State averaged 11.7 million viewers on CBS, down 23% from NC State’s upset win over Duke in last year’s late Sunday window (15.1 million viewers), though ahead of Miami-Texas in 2023 (11.3 million viewers). Despite the decline, Auburn-Michigan State is still the largest tournament audience thus far.
Sunday’s early game between defensive-minded Houston and Tennessee drew 7.1 million viewers on CBS, down 32% from Purdue’s win over Tennessee last year (10.4 million viewers). The game was the least-watched Sunday Elite Eight game on any network since at least 2008, per Sports Media Watch.
Though Sunday posted weak numbers compared to last year, Saturday’s pair of games both notched year-over-year increases.
Duke’s win over Alabama averaged 9.8 million viewers between TBS and truTV in primetime, up 25% versus Alabama and Clemson one year ago (7.8 million viewers). Early evening action featuring Florida’s comeback win over Texas Tech drew 7.5 million on the same networks, up 16% versus UConn and Illinois last season (6.5 million viewers).
Overall, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is holding even with last year’s viewership, averaging 9.4 million viewers per window or 3.7 million viewers per game, per Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal.
After CBS Sports and TNT Sports touted 32-year highs following the first weekend of the tournament, largely thanks to Nielsen’s new out-of-home measurement methodology, it seems viewership has come back down to earth. Without the boost given by Easter viewing, the men’s tournament is now treading even with last year.
But with all four No. 1 seeds filling out this year’s Final Four, expect some solid viewership numbers from the final three games of the tournament.