March Madness viewership experienced a decline last weekend following record-breaking first and second rounds. Men’s Elite Eight viewership averaged 9.0 million viewers across CBS, TBS, and truTV, reflecting a 10% drop from last year’s regional finals, which averaged 10.1 million viewers, according to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch. The previous year’s Elite Eight benefited from coinciding with Easter, a significant viewership day in the era of out-of-home viewing. In comparison, viewership this year was up 4% over 2023, when the Elite Eight did not coincide with Easter.
Consequently, Sunday’s games saw the steepest year-over-year declines. Auburn’s decisive victory over Michigan State averaged 11.7 million viewers on CBS, down 23% from NC State’s upset of Duke during last year’s late Sunday window (15.1 million viewers), although it surpassed Miami-Texas in 2023 (11.3 million viewers). Despite the decline, Auburn-Michigan State remains the largest tournament audience so far. In contrast, Sunday’s early match-up between Houston and Tennessee attracted 7.1 million viewers on CBS, marking a 32% drop from Purdue’s win over Tennessee last year (10.4 million viewers). This game was the least-watched Sunday Elite Eight game on any network since at least 2008, per Sports Media Watch.
While Sunday’s numbers were disappointing compared to last year, Saturday’s pair of games posted year-over-year increases. Duke’s victory over Alabama averaged 9.8 million viewers across TBS and truTV during primetime, a 25% increase compared to the Alabama-Clemson game a year prior (7.8 million viewers). Additionally, the early evening game featuring Florida’s comeback against Texas Tech attracted 7.5 million viewers on the same networks, up 16% from the UConn-Illinois matchup last season (6.5 million viewers).
Overall, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is roughly matching last year’s viewership, averaging 9.4 million viewers per window or 3.7 million viewers per game, according to Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal. After CBS Sports and TNT Sports celebrated 32-year highs following the tournament’s opening weekend, primarily due to Nielsen’s new out-of-home measurement method, it appears viewership has returned to more typical levels. Excluding the boost from Easter viewing, the men’s tournament is now keeping pace with last year.
However, with all four No. 1 seeds reaching this year’s Final Four, strong viewership numbers are anticipated for the final three games of the tournament.
