This means 8.4% of American metered market homes with TV sets were watching the face-off.

By comparison, two of the cable channels that showed parts of Trump’s event, CNN and MSNBC, had about a quarter of Fox’s audience combined.

So Trump’s rivals clearly came out ahead in the raw ratings.

The most recent GOP debate, televised two weeks ago on the Fox Business Network, had a household rating of 7.4. So Thursday’s debate was bigger — but not by much.

The other five GOP debates of the cycle have had household ratings ranging from 8.9 to 15.9.