(CN) - It's official: Monday night's showdown between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump was the most watched presidential debate in history.
Nielsen announced that an estimated 84 million people tuned in to watch the candidates spar face-to-face for the first time in the 2016 race for the White House.
By comparison, the first presidential candidate debate between President Barack Obama and his GOP challenger, Mitt Romney the record-holder for most watched debate before Monday night drew 67.1 million.
The ratings service said while coverage of the first televised presidential debate of the 2016 election cycle varied by network, 13 aired live coverage from 9 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. eastern time Monday night.
Nielsen also noted that there were 17.1 million Twitter interactions from 2.7 million people in the United States related to the presidential debate.
Seven of the top 10 debates by household viewership occurred within one of the last three election cycles. Of those six, Obama appeared in five of them.
Prior to the 2012 election, the most watched presidential debate had been the first 1980 debate between President Jimmy Carter and his eventual successor, Republican Ronald Reagan.
Two snap polls conducted immediately after Monday's presidential debate showed a clear majority of viewers believed Clinton won. But the big national polling companies have yet to weigh in on whether she's received a bump in their surveys.
So far, only the USC Dornsife/L.A. Times Presidential Election Daybreak Poll has announced new poll results. The latest, unveiled just this morning, still has Trump leading Clinton 47 percent to 43 percent nationally.
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