CFP National Championship vs Super Bowl: Which sporting event rules the roost in global viewership?

We are going into the tail end of both football seasons. The CFP National Championship game is set for January 8th, with the No. 1 Michigan Wolverines clashing with the No. 2 Washington Huskies. On the other end, the NFL is in the penultimate stages of the regular season.

The Wolverines defeated No. 5 Alabama in a close Rose Bowl affair that ended 27-20. The Huskies defeated No. 3 Texas in a high-scoring Sugar Bowl 37-31.

The Super Bowl is much further away from us, with the postseason set to start with the Wild Card Round on January 13th.

The Super Bowl is by far the more popular event, not only because it's highly watched abroad, unlike the CFP National Championship, but also because it seems to be getting ever more popular.

On the other hand, the CFP National Championship seems to be offering diminishing returns, with the 2021, 2022, and 2023 editions of the game being ranked as the three least watched.

How many people watch the CFP National Championship?

Last year's edition of the CFP title game had a viewership of 17 million people, making it the least watched in the history of the event, according to the numbers released by the CFP committee. It was less watched than its semifinals, which had 21–22 million viewers. The lack of viewership is probably due to the expected lopsided nature of the encounter between Georgia and TCU.

2023 CFP National Championship: TCU vs. Georgia

The most-viewed edition was the one in 2015. Around 33.9 million people tuned in to watch the Ohio State Buckeyes defeat the Oregon Ducks that year.

How many people watch the Super Bowl?

2023 was the most-viewed edition of the Super Bowl. 115 million people tuned in to watch the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII, according to Statista. It was a huge increase over the numbers of Super Bowl LVI when 99 million people tuned in to watch the final game of the NFL season.

Super Bowl LVII: Winning Head Coach and MVP Press Conference

Thus, it's clear as daylight that the Super Bowl, for the time being, is way ahead of the CFP National Championship games in terms of viewership and, therefore, popularity.