Over the weekend, the first two rounds of the 2026 NCAA men's basketball tournament got underway, with several epic games and buzzer beaters taking place. While there weren't as many upsets as usual this year, High Point made headlines by winning its first game and taking Arkansas down to the wire, while Duke got all it could handle from Siena in the first round.
On Monday, the TV viewership numbers for the first weekend of March Madness came in, and to say that they were strong would be an understatement.
“CBS Sports and TNT Sports Deliver the Most-Watched NCAA Tournament First Round Opening Day Ever,” reported March Madness Men's Basketball TV on X, formerly Twitter. “Thursday’s games averaged 9.8 million viewers, the best opening day on record. “Primetime window averaged 12.5 million viewers, the most-watched First Round window ever.”
They also noted that overall tournament viewership was up five percent from a year ago.
It's unclear what specifically led to this spike in viewership this year, but several factors could be attributed, including the lack of a clear-cut best team heading into the tournament, which increases parity, as well as the numerous star players who could be lottery picks at the NBA Draft in June who took the stage for March Madness.
Two of those players, Darius Acuff Jr. of Arkansas, and Cameron Boozer of Duke, are still dancing into the Sweet 16, while Kansas' Darryn Peterson and BYU's AJ Dybatnsa saw their season, and likely college careers, end over the weekend.
In any case, the Sweet 16 is slated to get underway starting on Thursday with a game between Texas, the lowest seed still remaining at number 11, and Purdue. Tipoff is set for 7:10 pm ET.
