ATLANTA (Jan. 15, 2025) – Driven by a double-overtime thriller between Texas and Arizona State, Peach Bowl, Inc. delivered strong results and set new milestones related to viewership, attendance and charitable donations in the first year of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.
"We saw exceptional results from our first-ever CFP Quarterfinal and the first year of the newly expanded 12-team playoff," said Gary Stokan, Peach Bowl, Inc. CEO and president. "We were fortunate to host what was the most competitive bowl game of the season, and were also able to feature three of the Power Four conference champions and four of the teams in this year's playoff field. Add in Atlanta becoming the first-ever city to host the CFP National Championship Game for a second time and there's no doubt we've further established ourselves as the 'Capital of College Football' after such a historic year."
MARQUEE MATCHUPS FEATURING THREE CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS
Peach Bowl, Inc. hosted four College Football Playoff teams and three conference champions between its Aflac Kickoff Game and CFP Quarterfinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
The Aflac Kickoff Game opened the season with the highest-ranked matchup of Week One where the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs defeated the No. 14 Clemson Tigers. Both teams went on to win their respective conferences and made an appearance in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.
The first-ever CFP Quarterfinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl rang in the New Year with a double-overtime thriller between the No. 5 Seed Texas Longhorns and the Big 12 Champion, No. 4 Seed Arizona State Sun Devils. The Sun Devils were able to overcome a 16-point deficit to force overtime, but the Longhorns eventually prevailed 38-31 capturing their first-ever Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl victory and becoming the first program in college football history to win all six of the prestigious New Year's Six bowl games.
CBS Sports ranked this year's CFP Quarterfinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl as the best bowl game of the season and also ranked it as a top 5 CFP game of all-time, along with the 2022 CFP Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, featuring Ohio State and Georgia.
MOST-WATCHED PRE-3 p.m. BOWL GAME OF ALL TIME:
A combined 25.5 million viewers tuned in to watch the Aflac Kickoff Game (8.2 million) on Labor Day weekend and the CFP Quarterfinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (17.3 million) on New Year's Day.
With 17.3 million viewers on ESPN, the CFP Quarterfinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl set a record as the most-watched bowl game of all time that kicked off before 3 p.m. ET. It also had the second-highest viewership of all the CFP Quarterfinal Games and was the fourth most-watched game of the entire college football season heading into the CFP National Championship on Monday.
More than 257.1 million viewers have now watched the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl since it began being broadcast on ESPN in 1991, while an additional 108.6 million have tuned into the Aflac Kickoff Game since its creation in 2008. On average, Peach Bowl games draw a television audience of 7.6 million viewers each year. The Aflac Kickoff Game delivers an average of 5.2 million viewers.
THIRD-HIGHEST ATTENDED BOWL GAME OF 2024 SEASON:
This year's sold-out CFP Quarterfinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl drew 71,105 fans to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, making it the third-highest attended bowl game of the 2024 bowl season heading into the CFP National Championship Game. It also marked the 25th sellout in the last 28 games for the Bowl.
A record-crowd of 78,827 fans attended this year's Aflac Kickoff Game, representing the most fans to ever attend an Aflac Kickoff Game in the event's 17-year history. It was also the second-largest crowd to ever attend a game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, trailing only the 2022 CFP Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
A total of 3.38 million fans have now attended the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in its 57-year history, while 1.38 million fans have attended Aflac Kickoff Games since its creation in 2008. The average attendance for Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl games during the CFP era is 69,906, while the Aflac Kickoff Game averages 65,677 fans per game.
MOST CHARITABLE BOWL ORGANIZATION:
Peach Bowl, Inc. made $2 million in charitable donations for the 2024-2025 college football season, which represented the largest donation by any bowl organization in the country. This marked the 18th straight year of eclipsing $1 million in giving. It also solidified the Peach Bowl's position as college football's most charitable bowl organization, having now donated $65.4 million to philanthropic efforts.
For the 2024-25 season, recipients included the Peach Bowl LegACy Fund benefiting Children's Healthcare of Atlanta with 14 pediatric cancer trials, the American Red Cross for relief efforts around Hurricanes Helene and Milton, CFP Extra Yard for Teachers' local school facility makeover projects, various university head coach foundations, contributions to the John Lewis Legacy of Courage endowed scholarship at the four participating universities and the Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation, among others.
UPCOMING SEASON:
The 2025 college football season will open with two Aflac Kickoff Games over Labor Day weekend, both featuring ACC-SEC matchups between Syracuse vs. Tennessee and Virginia Tech vs. South Carolina.
The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl's fourth CFP Semifinal will then be played the evening of Friday, Jan. 9, and will showcase two of the nation's best teams who have advanced to the semifinal round during the second year of the expanded 12-team playoff.
