The NFL averaged 18.7 million viewers per game during the regular season, the second highest since audience averages began being maintained in 1988.
The average number of games on television and digital platforms increased 10% from last season's 17.5 million and 7% from 2023, according to the league and Nielsen. It was also not far from the record average of 19 million set in 1989.
Part of the increase can be attributed to a change in the way viewers are counted. Nielsen started using Big Data + Dashboard methodology for all events of September last year with the beginning of the current television season.
Earlier this year, Nielsen began measuring out-of-home viewership in every state except Hawaii and Alaska, and also included data from smart TVs and cable and satellite set-top boxes.
Previously, Nielsen measured only the 44 largest media markets, which covered 65% of the country.
Viewership numbers for all five weekly league packages increased. The biggest increase was 16% for Prime Video's Thursday Night Football. CBS also saw double-digit growth of 11%. ESPN/ABC's “Monday Night Football” and NBC's “Sunday Night Football” were up 9%, while Fox's were up 6%.
It has been the NFL's most-watched program on Thursday nights since its inception in 2006.
The 15.33 million average topped the 13.65 million in 2019, when games aired on Fox, NFL Network and Prime Video.
Since Prime Video became the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football in 2022, viewership has increased by 60%. The first season averaged 9.58 million views as viewers had to adjust to the regular game package being moved to the streaming service.
Eight games this season averaged at least 15 million viewers, compared to four in the first three seasons.
The Denver Broncos' win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day averaged 21.06 million viewers, surpassing the 19.39 million seen in the Dec. 4 matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions.
CBS averaged 21.25 million viewers, its best regular season total ever and the highest average of any network.
The network's nationwide daytime games averaged 25.83 million viewers, beating Fox in the window for the third year in a row.
The Thanksgiving Day game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys averaged 57.23 million viewers, making it the most-watched regular season game in NFL history. According to Nielsen, the game collected 11.7 billion minutes of viewing on November 27 and became the best TV show of the month. By comparison, Netflix's Stranger Things racked up 11.8 billion minutes watched for the entire month as it was available on demand.
CBS's most-watched game on Sunday was what appears to be the annual showdown between Buffalo's Josh Allen and Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes. The Bills-Chiefs game on Nov. 2 averaged 30.84 million.
CBS ended up with four of the top 10 most-watched games.
NBC's “Sunday Night Football” averaged 23.5 million viewers, positioning it to become primetime's top-rated show for the 15th straight year when the television season ends in May.
However, NBC's two most-watched games did not take place on Sunday night. The NFL opener between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles averaged 28.3 million viewers on Sept. 4, with Joe Burrow returning to the Cincinnati Bengals lineup from a toe injury on Thanksgiving night to face the Baltimore Ravens.
Eight games averaged at least 25 million. The most-watched Sunday night game was between the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 12 (27.4 million).
NBC is also expected to host the most-watched show of the television season with the Super Bowl on Feb. 8.
The 21-game “Monday Night Football” package averaged 15.8 million viewers, the second-highest total since moving to ESPN in 2006. This includes two games exclusively on ABC and 11 simulcasts.
Five games topped 20 million, the highest total since MNF moved to ESPN. The Detroit Lions-Baltimore Ravens game on September 22 averaged 22.8 million viewers, the fourth most-watched Monday night game in 20 seasons.
Including two Saturday games in Week 18, ESPN's average viewership for the season rose to 16.5 million. Last Saturday night's game between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers for the top seed in the NFC playoffs drew 27.5 million viewers, the most-watched game of Week 18 across all networks.
Fox Sports averaged 19.63 million, its best regular season average since 2015. America's Game of the Week averaged 25.28 million in the afternoon, led by the Super Bowl 59 rematch between the Eagles and Chiefs on Sept. 14 (33.8 million). This was one of the rare times that the network that hosted the previous Super Bowl also received a rematch.
Fox's most-watched game came on Thanksgiving Day, with Green Bay-Detroit drawing 47.7 million viewers. Fox also had four of the 10 most-watched games.
The NFL also continues to be a strong driver for streaming packages.
In October data, Nielsen reported Peacock was up 16% in viewership, Paramount Plus was up 8% from September and Prime Video had a 6.4% average Thursday viewership.
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