Football | 12/29/2015 10:43:00 AM

STATESBORO, Ga. - Georgia Southern fans took over the streets of Mobile, Alabama, and apparently took over the airwaves too, at least according to Sports Media Watch. With the Eagles playing in their first bowl game in program history, the GoDaddy Bowl received one of the highest viewerships during the early portion of the bowl season. The game, broadcasted in primetime on ESPN, attracted 2.335 million viewers, according to the website.

The GoDaddy Bowl is the second-most watched bowl so far out of played games. Only Utah and BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl has attracted a higher viewership.

A scheduling shift boosted Mobile's annual bowl game to a multi-year high. The game was played in January last season. The viewership was up 72 percent from Toledo/Arkansas State last year (1.4M) and up 38 percent from Arkansas State/Ball State in 2013 (1.7M). 

The Eagles' 58-27 blowout win ranks as the most-watched edition of the game in four years, since Miami (OH)/Middle Tennessee State in 2011 (2.6M). This year was the first since 2011 in which the game aired on a weekday, after four straight years buried on the Sunday of NFL Wild Card Weekend.