Mar 5, 2016; Durham, NC, USA; Duke Blue Devils guard Grayson Allen (3) drives against North Carolina Tar Heels guard Marcus Paige (5) in the second half of their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports

UNC’s win over Duke on Saturday was seen by a record amount of viewers

As North Carolina beat Duke last Saturday to capture the ACC regular season title, the game was a pretty big one for fans of college basketball. More than 3,000,000 viewers tuned in for the Saturday night game according to ESPN and it is officially the most-watched college basketball game of the 2015-16 season.

The game had an average of 3,174,000 viewers according to the sports network as the game was aired on ESPN. That beat out Duke’s matchup with Kentucky at the State Farm Classic in Chicago by 54,000 viewers.

The first meeting between the two teams appears fourth on the list with an average viewership of 2,863,000. The non-conference meeting in January between Kentucky and Kansas finished third on the list with 2,984,000.

It’s not surprising to see these four schools dominate this list. They are all very popular teams across the country and draw big viewership numbers each season. But when they meet, the numbers get even bigger especially on primetime television.

UNC at Duke was Most Watched game of the hoops season (3.17 million viewers): https://t.co/cndfSsz5TJ

ESPN also released some info on their new market campaign of the Watch ESPN App:

On WatchESPN, the Tar Heels-Blue Devils season finale added 69,000 average minute impressions to the TV audience, with 229,000 viewers watching 8,795,000 minutes, up 46%, 51%, 37%, respectively, from last season’s season finale for the two ACC rivals (March 7, 2015).

The network is in the middle of “Championship Week” which usually draws big numbers each season. All four teams will likely be featured at least once on an ESPN network during the event as well.