NFL averaged 21 million viewers on opening weekend, biggest audiences ever

The NFL averaged 21 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 per-game average on TV and digital platforms was a 12% increase over last year.

All told, 123 million people saw at least part of one game, its highest total for an opening week since 2019.

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-largest regular season game since 2006, when it acquired the “Sunday Night Football” package. 

The Sunday night game between Detroit and the Los Angeles Rams, which the Lions won 26-20 in overtime, averaged 22.7 million, a 3% jump from last year.

This was the first time since 2020 that Fox solely had the Sunday afternoon doubleheader in Week 1. Both CBS and Fox carried two games apiece on the opening Sunday the past three seasons.

CBS averaged 17.79 million for its six games, its most watched Week 1 singleheader since it reacquired NFL rights in 1998. Most of CBS’ affiliates had games in the noon window, but New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Pittsburgh got Jim Harbaugh’s first game as coach of the Los Angeles Chargers against the Las Vegas Raiders at 3 p.m.

New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Pittsburgh could not air games in CBS’ early window because it is a league rule that no game is shown opposite the game of the local team.

“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 not being able to receive it due to its carriage dispute with Disney (the only way they could watch it is 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 the 22.7 million for last year’s opener between the Jets and Buffalo.


(AP Photo Ed Zurga)