Penn State wrestling’s dual meet against Iowa was the most watched wrestling broadcast in the Big Ten Network’s history.

The Nittany Lions’ 19-17 loss to the top-ranked Hawkeyes’ was watched by an average of 342,955 viewers on Friday night in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Most-watched wrestling broadcast in BTN History
Average wrestling audience +67% year-over-year
BTN was home to the top college sporting event 3⃣ consecutive nights last week

Full details: https://t.co/pUS77bmYn5 pic.twitter.com/jE9dMgfvUp

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) February 4, 2020

This comes as no surprise, as the match featured six ranked match-ups, including three matches in which both wrestlers were ranked top-three in the country. The Big Ten dual surpassed the Penn State vs. Ohio State meet in 2018, which averaged 309,265 viewers.

Cael Sanderson’s program helped the Big Ten Network finish off a run of three consecutive nights in which the network broadcast the highest-rated college sporting event across all TV networks. The run was started off Wednesday night when Penn State men’s basketball’s contest against Indiana averaged 325,205 viewers.

The Big Ten Network’s wrestling ratings have gone up quite a bit year-over-year, as its average audience for wrestling broadcasts is currently 116,043 viewers. That represents a 67% increase from last season’s average wrestling audience.

In addition to the dual meet’s strong TV ratings, it was streamed for a total of 802,574 minutes via the FOX Sports App.

The network will broadcast another bigtime dual meet this Friday when No. 2 Penn State travels to No. 4 Wisconsin. The match is set to start at 9 p.m. in the Wisconsin Field House in Madison, and the Nittany Lions will take on No. 6 Minnesota at 2 p.m. on Sunday on the road for a meet that will also be televised on the Big Ten Network.