The College Football Playoff is carrying some viewer momentum going into this week’s semifinals.
Last week’s quarterfinals had a 14% increase from last season. According to ESPN and Nielsen, the four matchups averaged 19.3 million viewers, including the three most-watched college football games of the current season.
This season’s CFP averaged 14.4 million through the quarterfinals, which is up 3% from last season, the first in which the playoff utilized a 12-team bracket (with first-round byes) after a first decade with a four-team format in which there were only two semifinals and and a title game. Six of the eight games from this season’s CFP are in the top 10 of the most viewed for the entire 2025 season.
Top-seeded Indiana’s 38-3 rout of No. 9 Alabama in the Rose Bowl quarterfinal averaged 24.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched CFP game since Michigan’s win over Washington in the 2023 season’s title game drew 25 million.
Overall, it was the 12th highest-viewed game in the 12 years of the CFP and a 13% jump from last year’s Rose Bowl between Ohio State and Oregon. The audience for Indiana’s first trip to the Rose Bowl since the 1967 season peaked at 25.6 million.