ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge Collects a Record Number of Brackets

This year’s edition of the ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge has collected 22.6 million completed brackets before the start of March Madness, ESPN announced. This is a new record-setting figure for the highly popular college basketball bracket game.

According to ESPN’s official announcement, the new number of brackets represents an increase of 13% compared to last year’s all-time high. The company also added that, just before the start of the first game, the challenge experienced a peak period of entries, registering over 27,555 brackets per minute.

For reference, this year’s ESPN Tournament Challenge has been redesigned and rebuilt to attract more players than ever and provide them with even more excitement.

ESPN pointed out that the most popular pick to win the men’s final is UConn with an overwhelming 24.7% of the brackets. The Huskies are followed by Houston as the second most-picked team with 13.7% of the brackets.

ESPN reminded participants that its ESPN Tournament Challenge includes the Perfect Bracket Tracker for both men’s and women’s games. This provides fans with a “fun and sharable way” for sports enthusiasts to track the number of perfect brackets remaining in real time.

The Perfect Bracket Tracker also tracks the games that have had or could have the most impact on perfect brackets.

In the meantime, the ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge will continue to accept brackets until the start of the first game of the women’s tournament.

The Challenge Has Been Improved

The challenge, which remains America’s most popular college basketball bracket game for both the men’s and women’s tournaments, will allow fans to compete with friends, family members and even celebrities.

As mentioned, this year’s ESPN Tournament Challenge has been fully reimagined “by fans, for fans.” The challenge now sports a brand-new look, making it more fun to play. Thanks to new features and imagery, the challenge is also more intuitive than ever.

Engagement is further enhanced by animations, design cues and new features. To make it even more appealing, both the Men’s Tournament Challenge Second Chance and the new Women’s Tournament Challenge Second Chance games are now included in the app.

Other new additions include requested features such as a bird’s eye view feature, better analytics, enhanced previews and a reimagined BracketCast.

Despite the multitude of new additions, the essence of the ESPN Tournament Challenge remains the same, leveraging free-to-play fantasy sports to turn sports into a collective experience.