Monday night’s NCAA men’s basketball championship game between Michigan and the University of Connecticut captured the attention of 18.3 million viewers nationwide, representing the largest television audience for the tournament’s final game in seven years.
The viewership numbers across TBS, TNT, truTV and HBO Max showed a significant 23% jump compared to the same networks’ coverage of the 2024 championship contest.
Michigan’s 69-63 triumph in Indianapolis, which secured the Wolverines their first national title since 1989, reached its highest audience of 20.4 million viewers during the game’s final moments between 11 and 11:15 p.m. Eastern Time.
These viewing figures represent the strongest performance for an NCAA championship game since Virginia’s victory over Texas Tech in Minneapolis during 2019.
The Final Four rounds, which included Arizona and Illinois alongside the two finalists, brought in an average of 14.2 million viewers, reflecting an 11% increase from the previous year. The complete tournament, with additional games broadcast on CBS, averaged 10.9 million viewers – a 7% rise from last year and the second-highest viewership for the tournament since 1994.
Television coverage of March Madness is split between TBS Sports and CBS Sports, with the two networks taking turns broadcasting the championship game annually.
