Ratings continue to climb for the annual Army/Navy game.

Last Saturday’s Army/Navy college football game earned a 4.5 final rating and 7.1 million viewers on CBS, up 10% in ratings and 14% in viewership from last year (4.1, 6.3M), up 15% in both measures from 2013 (3.9, 6.2M), and the highest rated and most-watched game between the rivals since 1999 and 1994, respectively.

The 4.5 rating is the second-highest since CBS began carrying the Army/Navy game in 1996, behind only 1999.

Ratings for the Army/Navy game have now increased for five consecutive seasons and six of the past seven. Since moving to the week after the conference championship games in 2009, it has earned at least a 3.3 rating each year. The year before the change, 2008, it bottomed out at a 2.0.

Of the 18 college football windows on CBS this season, the Midshipmen’s win ranks fourth in ratings and viewership — behind only Alabama/Florida in the SEC Championship Game (7.8, 12.8M), a primetime LSU/Alabama game (6.4, 11.1M) and the Alabama/Auburn Iron Bowl (5.3, 9.3M). Regardless of network, it is tied for 10th in ratings and ranks 17th in viewership.



(Sat. numbers via Sports Business Daily, with additional info from twitter.com/cbssportsgang)