March Madness TV ratings off to hot start through opening week

Believe it or not, the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 round is already set. Although it feels like March Madness just started, the tournament is moving quickly – and there are now only 16 teams remaining after the field initially began with 68.

Looking at the Sweet 16 field, which includes three No. 1 seeds with Gonzaga, Arizona and Kansas, two No. 2 seeds with Duke and Villanova and two No. 3 seeds with Texas Tech and Purdue, there are some exciting matchups set to take place on Thursday and Friday as the teams battle for spots in the Elite Eight.

Before the tournament rolls on into the Sweet 16 this week, the viewership numbers from the opening week of the tournament – so, from the first and second rounds – have been revealed – and the numbers are stronger than ever.

As shared on Twitter by March Madness Men’s Basketball TV, the 2022 NCAA Tournament is delivering the best start in five years with an average of 9.119 million viewers across the four March Madness channels of TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV – with a 12% increase from the 2021 tournament.

In addition to the TV ratings, the NCAA’s March Madness Live service is “significantly outpacing 2021, while delivering its second-best performance ever in live unique viewers and live hours through the second round.”

The tweet also mentioned that the official March Madness social media handles are “registering record-setting cross-platform engagement through the second round,” adding that it’s a 38% increase from 2021.

Most-watched game of NCAA Tournament opening week revealed

While the overall numbers as a whole are strong, the most-watched game of the opening week of the NCAA Tournament has also been revealed: No. 2 Duke vs. No. 7 Michigan State.

In a second-round matchup between two of the most storied programs – and head coaches – in the history of college basketball, Mike Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils were able to outlast Tom Izzo’s Spartans for a 85-76 win – and many, many people across the country tuned into watch it.

According to Kevin Pauga, who’s an associate athletic director at Michigan State, 11.2 million people had their devices set to CBS to watch the Blue Devils and Spartans compete for a spot in the Sweet 16, easily making it the most-watched NCAA Tournament game of this year’s first week.