Round one of the NFL Draft was a ratings hit, if no match for last year’s all-time record.
The opening round of the NFL Draft averaged 12.52 million viewers across ESPN, ABC and NFL Network Thursday night, the second-largest audience in the history of the event. Viewership declined 18% from last year’s all-time record of 15.26 million, set during a period in which all other competing sporting events were on hiatus.
Thursday marked just the third time that the NFL Draft has cracked the 12 million viewer mark. Beyond last year, the 2014 opening round — in which Johnny Manziel fell to the Browns at pick 22 — averaged 12.37 million.
Including additional streaming viewership not measured by Nielsen (598K), the first round averaged 12.6 million.
ESPN aired the most-watched Draft broadcast with an average of 6.48 million, down 18% from last year (7.86M) but up a third from 2019 (4.86M). ABC’s broadcast followed at 4.19 million, down 26% from last year (5.68M) and down 8% from 2019 (4.54M). NFL Network bucked the downward trend with 1.85 million (+7%), its largest Draft audience since 2018 (2.01M).
In what would have to be a first, the NFL Draft averaged a larger audience than the Academy Awards, which aired less than a week earlier (10.40M). It also outdrew all-but-three non-football sportscasts since 2019, trailing only Game 6 of last year’s World Series (12.70M), Gonzaga-UCLA in this year’s NCAA men’s Final Four (14.94M), and the subsequent Baylor-Gonzaga men’s title game (16.92M).
The opening round combined for a 4.2 rating in adults 18-49 and a 3.3 in 18-34, television’s highest rating in both demos since the Super Bowl.
Host-market Cleveland led all markets with a whopping 21.7 rating, followed by fellow Ohio market Columbus (15.1). Milwaukee (12.1), Nashville (12.0) and Philadelphia (11.7) rounded out the top five. Jacksonville, whose Jaguars selected Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence with the first overall pick, tied Pittsburgh for sixth at an 11.3.
NFL Draft first round viewership, past 10 editions
| Year | Top pick | Viewers | |||
| ESPN | NFLN | OTA | Total | ||
| 2021 | JAX: Lawrence (QB, CLEM) | 6.478M | 1.850M | 4.192M | 12.520M |
| 2020 | CIN: Burrow (QB, LSU) | 7.859M | 1.724M | 5.681M | 15.264M |
| 2019 | ARIZ: Murray (QB, OU) | 4.864M | 1.698M | 4.539M | 11.101M |
| 2018 | CLE: Mayfield (QB, OU) | 5.473M | 2.005M | 3.736M | 11.214M |
| 2017 | CLE: Garrett (DE, T A&M) | 6.681M | 2.528M | none | 9.209M |
| 2016 | LAR: Goff (QB, Cal) | 6.289M | 2.039M | none | 8.328M |
| 2015 | TB: Winston (QB, FSU) | 7.026M | 1.816M | none | 8.842M |
| 2014 | HOU: Clowney (DE, SC) | 9.943M | 2.430M | none | 12.373M |
| 2013 | KC: Fisher (T, CMU) | 6.199M | 1.522M | none | 7.721M |
| 2012 | IND: Luck (QB, STAN) | 6.661M | 1.400M | none | 8.061M |
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 4.30, NFL PR 4.30, ESPN PR/Twitter 4.30]
