President Donald Trump’s address to Congress gained more viewers than his predecessor’s final State of the Union speech, according to Nielsen.
A total of 36.6 million people tuned into Trump’s speech on Tuesday night, putting it ahead of the 32.2 million people who watched former President Joe Biden’s speech last year. Trump’s speech came weeks into the new administration, with the president touting his accomplishments during his address to Congress.
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For those watching on television, Fox News won the night with 10.7 million viewers. ABC News was a distant second with 6.3 million, and CBS News came in third with 4 million. Both CNN and MSNBC failed to crack 2 million viewers with this speech, getting roughly 1.9 million each.
Millions of people between the ages of 25 through 54 also tuned in to hear the president’s remarks, with Fox News drawing the most with 1.9 million viewers in this age demographic. Like with all viewers, ABC News came in second with this demographic, though it was much closer to first place thanks to 1.7 million younger viewers tuning in.
Trump’s speech also drew in a large chunk of viewers on streaming, with his speech getting 3.1 million views on YouTube, where it is still the #1 trending video as of Thursday afternoon. Rumble, an alternative video streaming platform to YouTube, also saw his speech get 739,000 views, while the White House’s livestream of the speech on X received 327,000 views.
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While the speech drew in millions, the viewership is not nearly as high as some of Trump’s previous speeches. His first address to Congress in 2017, for instance, drew 47.7 million viewers, while his 2020 State of the Union speech, the last one of his first presidency, received 37.2 viewers.
Trump’s address was largely about the president promoting his accomplishments within the first few weeks of his presidency, which included lowering illegal immigration, defending his use of tariffs, and continuing to work with Ukraine to achieve peace. He also took a moment to blame his presidential predecessor for the spike in egg prices.