The NFL averaged 21.0 million viewers per game during the league’s opening week, making it the most-watched Week 1 on record.
The league and Nielsen said Wednesday morning that the average per game across television and digital platforms was up 12% from last year.
In total, 123 million people watched at least part of a game, the highest total for an opening week since 2019.
“It was a great start in terms of viewership. It was great to be back and there are a lot of reasons to be excited,” said Hans Schroeder, executive vice president of NFL Media.
NBC had the most-watched game, with defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City’s 27-20 victory over Baltimore in last Thursday’s opener averaging 29.2 million on TV and digital. It was NBC’s second-biggest regular-season game since 2006, when it acquired the “Sunday Night Football” package. Sunday night’s game between Detroit and the Los Angeles Rams, which the Lions won 26-20 in overtime, averaged 22.7 million, up 3 percent from last year.
Tom Brady’s first game as Fox’s lead analyst — Dallas’ 33-17 win over Cleveland — averaged 23.93 million viewers. The six games that comprised Fox’s doubleheader — four at the start and two at the end — averaged 18.64 million, making it the network’s best start since 2020.
This was the first time since 2020 that Fox only had the Sunday afternoon doubleheader in Week 1. Both CBS and Fox have aired two games each on Opening Sunday the past three seasons.
CBS averaged 17.79 million viewers for its six games, its most-watched Week 1 game since it regained NFL rights in 1998. Most CBS affiliates had games in the 1 p.m. EDT time slot, but New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Pittsburgh had Jim Harbaugh’s first game as coach of the Los Angeles Chargers against the Las Vegas Raiders at 4:05 p.m. EDT.
New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Pittsburgh were unable to air their games in CBS’ early window because it is a league rule that no game be shown in front of the home team’s game.
Philadelphia’s 34-29 win over Green Bay in the NFL’s first Week 1 game in 54 years averaged 14.0 million viewers across Peacock and NBC affiliates in Philadelphia, Green Bay and Milwaukee. It was the second-most-watched live event in Peacock’s four-year history, behind last season’s AFC wild-card game between Kansas City and Miami.
“I think the numbers even exceeded our expectations. Brazil played very well and the game was exciting,” said Schroeder. “On a new night and in a new window, I think it was a phenomenal start for us.”
“Monday Night Football” on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+ averaged 20.4 million for San Francisco’s 32-19 win over the New York Jets despite most DirecTV customers being unable to receive it due to its broadcast dispute with Disney (the only way they could watch it was if their ABC affiliate was not owned by Disney, which was not the case for DirecTV customers in New York and San Francisco).
The average was down from $22.7 million for last year’s opener between the Jets and Buffalo.
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