Duke basketball finished the 2025-26 season as the second-most watched team in the nation, attracting 2.9 million viewers, just behind national champion Michigan at 3.3 million. The Blue Devils ended the season with a record of 35-3 and faced two top-five teams during the year.
In its fourth season under head coach Jon Scheyer, Duke basketball finished the 2025-26 college hoops season as the nation's second-most watched team, per an April 13 Nielsen release.
Only national champion Michigan ranked ahead of Duke in viewership, with the Wolverines garnering around 3.3 million viewers compared to the Blue Devils' 2.9. UConn (2.8 million), Purdue (2.5) and Illinois (2.3) rounded out the top-five.
The Blue Devils faced two teams in that top-five group, notching a 68-63 win over Michigan on Feb. 21 before seeing its season come to an end in a 73-72 loss to the Huskies in the NCAA Tournament Elite 8. Duke finished the year 35-3, its second-straight 35-win season.
Consistently a top-watched team, the Blue Devils finished the regular season tabbed as Nielsen's most popular men's college basketball team, measuring both viewership and social media data. They came in at No. 2 in viewership earlier in the year, trailing just Michigan State.
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Anna Snyder covers Duke for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at asnyder@usatodayco.com or follow her @annaesnydr on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Duke basketball second-most watched team in college basketball
Duke basketball attracted 2.9 million viewers during the 2025-26 season.
Michigan was the most-watched college basketball team in the 2025-26 season, with 3.3 million viewers.
Duke finished the 2025-26 basketball season with a record of 35-3.
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