ESPN's Armed Forces Classic - a doubleheader for the first time in its five-year history - earned its single-game, highest rating with No. 11 Indiana's 103-99 overtime, upset-win against No. 3 Kansas on opening night of the college basketball season - averaging a 0.9 overnight rating. The first game of the doubleheader - No. 10 Arizona's 65-63 thrilling victory against No. 12 Michigan State - tied for the annual event's third best overnight with a 0.7 rating with Louisville's win over Minnesota in the 2014 Classic.
Streaming continues to grow at ESPN, evident with Friday night coverage of the Armed Forces Classic, more than doubling the previous events. The Indiana-Kansas overtime win had an average minute audience of 48,000 viewers, up 220 percent year over year. The first game of the doubleheader, showcasing Arizona's win over Michigan State, saw a 140 percent increase with an average minute audience of 36,000 viewers.
The 2016 Armed Forces Classic - originated from the Stan Sheriff Center on the campus of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu with surrounding events at the U.S. Navy Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam - was played on Veterans Day, November 11, just under a month from the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Armed Forces Classic is owned and operated by
ESPN Events, a division of ESPN. The annual event is scheduled to continue for the foreseeable future with the 2017 event returning to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, featuring Texas A&M against West Virginia.
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