No matter what you think about TGL following Tuesday night’s opening match, one thing is certain: The new league had people talking. And now we know plenty of people were watching as well.

ESPN released strong viewership numbers from Tuesday’s broadcast from the SoFi Center. Overall, the network attracted an average audience of 919,000 for the two-hour telecast with that number peaking at 1.1 million between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m. ET.

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What does this mean? It’s tough to find an apples-to-apples comparison, but as @YeahClickClack noted on Twitter, TGL outdrew the Duke vs. Pitt men’s college basketball game that was shown in the 7-9 timeslot leading into TGL.

🚨TGL VIEWERSHIP🚨

9P TGL – 919,000 viewers on ESPN

Big audience, especially compared to 751,000 for Duke/PITT CBB lead-in @ 7P.@JoshACarpenter @NoLayingUp https://t.co/cTDo9G3nld

— @YeahClickClack (@YeahClickClack) January 8, 2025

To make two golf comparisons, TGL’s debut doubled the viewership of Sunday’s final-round coverage of the PGA Tour’s season opener on Golf Channel. And it was more than 10 times what LIV’s season-ending individual championship drew on the CW in September. Although, again, not perfect comps with those being broadcast on Sunday and not all in prime time.

Regardless, TGL and ESPN executives have to be happy with these initial results—especially given the fact that the opening match wasn’t particularly competitive with Bay Golf Club easily defeating New York Golf Club, 9 to 2. (Get caught up on our full rundown of the night here.)

What also has to be encouraging to those involved is that neither Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy, two the league’s founders along with Mike McCarley, participated. Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club will take on Los Angeles Golf Club next Tuesday (Jan. 14) at 7 p.m. ET in the league’s second match. And Woods will face McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf on Jan. 27 at 6:30 p.m. ET.

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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com