The NFL viewership train keeps on rolling.
According to the league, citing Nielsen panel data that incorporates first-party streaming figures, the NFL is averaging 17.5 million viewers per game. That’s the largest average audience through 12 weeks since 2015.
Notably, these figures do not include the NFL’s package of international games that air on NFL Network, nor the streaming exclusives on Peacock and ESPN+.
Per the NFL, their games have accounted for 47 of the top 50 shows on television since the start of the season. That should come as no surprise. In 2023, the NFL drew 93 of the top 100 audiences of the year. College football accounted for another three, with the State of the Union address, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Oscars, and the Super Bowl lead-out program taking up the other four spots.
It should be noted, Nielsen incorporates several more measurements in its data now than in prior years. Before 2020, Nielsen did not include out-of-home viewing in its final measurements. The addition of out-of-home typically accounts for somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% of the final viewership number. Recently, Nielsen has begun including first-party streaming data from networks, further juicing the numbers in comparison to prior years.
Nevertheless, the NFL continues to show it’s the only game in town when it comes to mass viewership events in the United States. That dominance will be on display this Thursday when a trio of lackluster Thanksgiving games become the most-watched regular season matchups of the year.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.