As should surprise nobody, the NFL yet again dominated the list of most-watched sporting events in 2022.
NFL games made up 45 of the 50 largest Nielsen-measured sports audiences last year, including the top 32, with Super Bowl 56 between the Rams and Bengals taking its customary spot atop the list with more than 99 million. The only exceptions were the FIFA World Cup Final, the Olympic Super Bowl lead-out, and three college football games — last season’s Georgia-Alabama national championship and this season’s CFP semifinals on New Year’s Eve.
Outside of football, the World Cup and Olympics, North Carolina-Duke in the NCAA men’s Final Four was the top game last year with 17.66 million viewers, followed by the Kentucky Derby and Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
Notable events to miss the top 50 — even with NFL games excluded — include NASCAR’s Daytona 500 (8.87M) and the top game of the Stanley Cup Final (Lightning-Avalanche Game 5: 5.15M).
Below are the 50 most-watched games of 2022, the 50 most-watched games with the NFL excluded, and a list of top games by sport.
50 most-watched games of 2022
World Cup numbers include pre-match coverage. Because not every network reports separate streaming data, for the sake of consistency all data here is from Nielsen-only (e.g., not including additional streaming data calculated by Adobe Analytics).
Last season’s NFL playoff games took up the top four spots, with Giants-Cowboys on Thanksgiving the top game from the current season at #5.
50 most-watched games of 2022, excluding the NFL
College football games took up three of the top four spots with NFL games excluded.
Most-watched games of 2022 by sport
