The NFL’s dominance in the ratings continued with the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft on Thursday night.
Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch reported that between ESPN, ABC and the NFL Network, first-round viewership was up 11% from last year.
“ESPN had the most-watched Draft telecast with a 3.0 rating (+5%) and 6.38 million viewers (+13%), followed by ABC at a 2.6 (+7%) and 4.74 million (+15%) and NFL Network at a 0.8 (+6%) and 2.08 million (+33%),” Lewis wrote. “It was the most-watched NFL Draft telecast on ESPN since 2021 (6.48M), ABC since 2020 (5.68M) and NFL Network since 2017, the final year before the league added a broadcast network simulcast (2.53M).
“The three linear networks combined for a 6.3 and 13.2 million,” the report added. “While viewership was the second-highest on record for the draft, the household rating — which by definition does not include out-of-home viewing — ranks fifth behind 2018 (7.0), 2019 (7.0), 2020 (8.8) and 2021 (7.0).”
While the 2025 NFL Draft featured what was generally considered one of the weaker on-field classes, it has had several storylines around key players. Most notably, of course, has been the continued slide of Shedeur Sanders, which dominated both Thursday and Friday’s coverage.
In addition to the 11% increase from 2024, 2025’s first round was the most-watched since 2020’s first round, which aired during COVID-19 lockdowns and was one of the few sporting events to run during the early days of the pandemic.