How many people watched the Kamala Harris/Donald Trump debate?

The 2024 presidential race was permanently changed by the first debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and it shows.

In the hours after the debate ended, marking the conclusion of the first-ever meeting between the powerhouse candidates, the temperature of viewers, analysts, and political pundits became clear. While Fox News and its right-leaning ilk worked hard to conjure up a narrative in which Trump was anything other than embarrassingly incompetent, actual news stations across the nation were declaring a clear-cut victory for Harris.

Viewers are in full agreement with that assessment, with people — from regular American voters to high-profile celebrities and fellow politicians — openly lauding Harris for a stellar showing. Trump, meanwhile, is shying away from talks of a follow-up debate in October, while still trying to keep up the illusion that he performed well in the debate.

He can try to warp the narrative all he wants, but he can’t rewrite this particular bit of history. Unfortunately for Trump, quite a few U.S. citizens tuned into the debate for themselves, rather than relying on follow-up analysis, which leaves him little room to twist the facts and wriggle his way out of the palpable loss he suffered on Sept. 10.

How many people tuned in to watch Kamala Harris eviscerate Donald Trump?

The debate only just happened, which limits access to data about viewership, but we do already have an impression of how many people tuned in. We’ll get hard numbers eventually, once Nielson and similar television trackers have a chance to compile them, but for now a perusal of the numerous livestreams available during the debate paints a picture of how many Americans showed up to witness the second debate for themselves.

On YouTube, where numerous livestreams were available to access, millions of people tuned into various networks to witness the slaughter for themselves. More than 12.5 million people joined ABC News’ coverage of the evening, joined by 1 million NBC News viewers, a similar number of CSPAN viewers, nearly 3 million CNN viewers, just under 2 million MSNBC viewers, 6.1 Wall Street Journal subscribers, and hundreds of thousands more joined on networks like PBS, AP, and various other news outlets.

That equals out to more than 26 million viewers on YouTube alone, and far more joined via ABC’s live broadcast and several simulcasts hosted by other networks. Its a big number, and one that’s only likely to get bigger as additional data comes in. These numbers are all the more impressive when they’re weighed against the viewership of previous presidential debates. The debate between Trump and former democratic nominee Joe Biden pulled in 51.27 million viewers in total, which was a marked decline from the 2020 debates between Biden and Trump. A good 30% fewer viewers tuned in for the first debate of 2024, seemingly showcasing a stark decline in interest.

Perhaps that interest had more to do with the candidates than voters, however. The second debate is certainly stirring up more positive conversation, and it may well have stirred up far more viewers. We’ll have hard data soon, but chances are good that the second debate was more viewed than the first, but likely still less than the record 84 million viewers who tuned in for the first 2016 debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

While 25 million viewers isn’t all that impressive, when compared to the hefty numbers of previous debates, keep in mind that its only the tip of the iceberg. YouTube pulls in just a portion of overall viewership for any live event, and since the second debate was likewise available on streamers Hulu and Disney Plus, its entirely likely that we’ll see much higher numbers trickling in soon. Maybe even enough to elevate the event to the most-watched presidential debate in history.