BYU's Win Over Notre Dame Becomes the Most Viewed Game in Modern School History

BYU's Win Over Notre Dame Becomes the Most Viewed Game in Modern School History

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BYU's Win Over Notre Dame Becomes the Most Viewed Game in Modern School History
BYU Football tight end Walker Lyons scores the go-ahead touchdown against Notre Dame
BYU Football tight end Walker Lyons scores the go-ahead touchdown against Notre Dame | BYU Photo

A record-setting audience watched BYU take down no. 2 Notre Dame in a historic top 10 showdown. On Tuesday, ESPN Public Relations announced that BYU-Notre Dame averaged 9.2 million viewers and peaked at 13.2 millions viewers. 9.2 million viewers is the largest television audience for a BYU game in the modern era, surpassing the previous record which was set in BYU's loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship game. That game averaged 9.0 million viewers.

BYU-Notre Dame was the most viewed game of on the ESPN networks and it was the second-most viewed game of the weekend behind only Ohio State-Indiana (10.4M).

It is believed that BYU-Notre Dame is the second most viewed game in BYU history. According to BYU associate director of communications Duff Tittle back in 2024, BYU played Utah in 1953 in a game that was believed to be watched by more than 60 million people.

According to the release, BYU-Notre Dame was the "most-watched Big 12 controlled game since 2022 and the second best this decade." That excludes Big 12 championship games. In other words, it was the most viewed regular season game since the conference lost Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC.

Here at BYU On SI, we have tracked television ratings back to the start of the independence era. Audiences exceeding 5 million viewers were unheard of before BYU joined the Big 12. Since joining the Big 12, the Cougars have delivered some of the biggest audiences in their history, including four games exceeding 8.0 million. Here are the 10 most viewed games dating back to 2011.

Bar chart showing top 10 most viewed BYU football games led by 2026 Notre Dame win at 9.2M viewers.
The most viewed BYU football games since 2011 | BYU On SI

Given the audience, the playoff stakes, and the outcome of BYU's win over Notre Dame, it has the chance to change the perception of the program. Over the last two years, BYU has been fighting for the attention of the College Football Playoff committee. Despite having a playoff-worthy resume last season, the Cougars were left on the outside looking in at the playoff. The Cougars earned national respect for taking down the Fighting Irish.

College GameDay from Provo Draws Huge Audience

It wasn't only the game itself that drew a large audience. The College GameDay show from Provo averaged 3 million viewers, becoming the third most-watched episode ever and the most-viewed episode of the season.

BYU was at the center of the college football world on Saturday and delivered arguably the biggest win in program history. It was a big moment not only for BYU, but for the Big 12 at large.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/byu as BYU's Win Over Notre Dame Becomes the Most Viewed Game in Modern School History.

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