Presidential debate reaches 84 million viewers in US, easily toppling record

The showdown between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was comfortably the most-watched US presidential debate ever, with 84 million domestic viewers.

The Nielsen company said the viewership, over 13 different networks, toppled a record that had stood for 36 years. The previous record for presidential debate viewership was the 80.6 million people who saw the only debate in 1980 between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican challenger Ronald Reagan.

At the time of the Carter-Reagan debate, the US population was 226 million. Now, it is 324 million, according to the US Census Bureau.

No debate since then had exceeded 70 million viewers.

Watch: Clinton and Trump go head-to-head