Notre Dame-Texas thriller most-watched opening weekend college football game

The Texas Longhorns and Notre Dame Fighting Irish waged war in what was probably the best game of the 2016 college football season and Week 1 isn’t even over yet. Fans all over the country seemed to enjoy the game between two bluebloods of college football as it was reported as the most-watched college football game on record across all networks.

ESPN reported that the game brought in a total audience, both from ABC and streaming on WatchESPN, of 11,093,000 million viewers Sunday night. That is an impressive number and sets the record for most viewers of a single college football game when compared to all networks (ABC, ESPN, CBS, etc.)

These near 11.1 million viewers is a three percent increase from last year’s Labor Day game between Ohio State and Virginia Tech. The 10.89 million viewers on ABC also sets the record for most viewers of an opening weekend college football game.

The game ended up peaking at around 13,522,000 viewers between 11 and 11:30 p.m. EST, about the time the fourth quarter was ending and overtime was beginning. That is pretty impressive and all other games will have something to live up to going into the rest of the college football season.

How will tonight’s prime time match-up between two top 15 programs compare to last night’s game? Tune into ESPN at 8 p.m. to see the Florida State Seminoles and Ole Miss Rebels square off in Orlando.

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Arkansas DB Kevin Richardson tears pectoral, out for 2016
Arkansas DB Kevin Richardson tears pectoral, out for 2016