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TV Ratings Announced For 2025 Men's National Championship Game

Originally posted on The Spun | By Daniel Bates | Last updated Apr 8, 2025 6:23 PM ET

Monday night's national championship game between Florida and Houston was a fitting conclusion to one of the most-watched NCAA Tournaments on-record.

According to March Madness Men's Basketball TV, the Gators-Cougars matchup scored an average of 18.1 million viewers on CBS — up 22% and the biggest audience a title game has had since 2019.

Over 21 million people reportedly tuned in for the exciting, drama-filled ending in the final minutes and tournament viewership was up across the board by 3% on CBS, TNT, truTV and TBS.

Final Four weekend as a whole collected an average audience of 16.4 million for its three games which was a 21% improvement and the best ratings numbers in nearly a decade.

National Championship between Florida and Houston delivers 18.1 million viewers on CBS, capping off the most-watched Final Four weekend since 2017 pic.twitter.com/3FmBOMDGuF
— March Madness Men’s Basketball TV (@MM_MBB_TV) April 8, 2025

Fans reacted to the NCAA's impressive viewership on X.

"College Basketball on CBS. You should have bought stock a long time ago," Jon Rothstein shared.

"College basketball is probably as healthy as its been in 30 years," Aaron Torres replied. "Portal/NIL need tweaks - but its keeping good players in school and leading to better teams and games."

"Logo holds too much weight," UF alum Dan Thompson said.

"Most SECentric tournament ever = Most viewers in years," a user pointed out.

"Cinderellas are fun but the Final Four is better with #1 seeds there," a fan admitted.

"The Crown championship had 18.7 million viewers ... Successful weekend all around."

Florida's win in the final seconds was a nice capper to a fun college hoops season.

We'll see how much a jump these numbers could potentially take next year when the sport reshuffles the deck.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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