NCAA basketball captivates viewers with eight-year high opening week numbers as it continues to trend in the right direction
March Madness, which refers to the month-long single-elimination basketball tournament involving NCAA Division 1 basketball teams from across the United States, came back with a bang last week.
The opening round of matches from the tournament proper, which kicked off last Thursday, attracted a total of 8.4m television viewers, the highest figure achieved since 2015.
These numbers also equated to a 2% increase on last year's performance.
How to watch March Madness in the US
The NCAA men's basketball tournament is available to watch across Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery networks, with Paramount showing their games on CBS and Discovery's games airing across their on TBS, TNT and TruTV channels.
Both media conglomerates also have their own live streaming options which fans can use to track the action. Paramount+ is the online platform of Paramount/CBS, while Discovery has its very own Discovery+ streaming network.
March Madness draws record numbers
American audiences are certainly not losing appetite for college basketball. An average of 8.4m domestic viewers tuned in to see the tournament during its first week.
During primetime, the average audience was 10.16m viewers for each game, while the match between Auburn and Iowa attracted 3.44m viewers of its own on TNT, making it the most watched game during that viewing window.
In terms of late showings, Louisiana's clash with Tennessee garnered 3.48m viewers, making it the most popular event of that window.
Across timeslots, March Madness is trending up year-on-year, shattering previous viewership records.
In fact, on the whole, matches from the first round of this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament remarkably gathered higher average audiences than those seen for the last NFL Pro Bowl and MLB All-Star games.
March Madness set to hit greater heights during 'Sweet 16'
NCAA bosses will be rubbing their hands together at the thought of the type of numbers they may be about to set as the March Madness tournament picks up steam.
After a short two-day break, the tournament will reach its 'Sweet 16' stage, with eight highly-anticipated matches, starting on Thursday 23rd March, later this week, before it reaches its 'Elite Eight' this weekend.
As the competition enters its last 16, or 'Sweet 16', the Alabama Crimson Tide, Houston Cougars, and UCLA Bruins sit among the favourites to win the whole thing, and fans will be watching them closely.
All three teams are in action on Friday (March 24th) as Alabama take on San Diego, Houston meet Miami and UCLA go up against Gonzaga.
The popularity of NCAA college basketball continues to grow as it borders on challenging that of professional sports in the United States.
Stick around for more great Sports Streams News from Sporticos.
