The NFL’s increased push onto Christmas Day continues to pay off in the ratings.
The three NFL Christmas Day games averaged an 11.1 rating and 28.68 million viewers, up 23% in ratings and 30% in viewership from last year (8.9, 22.05M). Raiders-Chiefs led the way with a combined 11.7 and 29.48 million across CBS (11.4, 28.57M) and Nickelodeon (0.31, 903K), marking the most-watched Christmas game since Bengals-Vikings on ABC in 1989 (33.06M). (Keep in mind out-of-home viewing was not tracked in Nielsen final nationals until 2020, meaning some of the intervening games would have averaged more viewers all things being equal.)
The Raiders’ upset win, which peaked with 37.16 million, increased 10% in ratings and 14% in viewership from Packers-Dolphins on FOX in the same window last year (10.7, 25.92M).
Raiders-Chiefs delivered the fifth-largest audience of the NFL season — trailing the two Thanksgiving afternoon games (Washington-Dallas: 41.76M; Lions-Packers: 33.70M), the Christmas Eve national window on FOX (mostly Cowboys-Dolphins: 31.52M) and the Week 12 national window on CBS (mostly Bills-Eagles: 30.90M).
Later in the day, FOX averaged a 10.1 and 29.02 million for Giants-Eagles — the second-largest Christmas audience since ’89 and up 29% from Broncos-Rams on CBS and Nickelodeon last year (22.57M).
Rounding out the Christmas slate, the Ravens-49ers Monday Night Football game averaged an 11.4 and 27.24 million across ABC and ESPN Deportes — up 48% and 61% respectively from Buccaneers-Cardinals on NBC’s Sunday Night Football last Christmas (17.15M) and the NFL’s fifth-largest Christmas audience. The Ravens’ blowout win, which peaked with 31.4 million viewers, trails only Eagles-Chiefs earlier this season as the most-watched regular season edition of MNF since 1996.
Out-of-home viewing is particularly pronounced on holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, which typically feature a high number of family gatherings. For Christmas in particular, out-of-home has transformed a holiday that was often overlooked by the NFL into one of its most-watched days. On the NFL’s last Christmas before the out-of-home era — 2017 — the most-watched game was Steelers-Texans with just shy of 17 million viewers.
In 2020 — technically part of the out-of-home era, but also a year in which family gatherings were actively discouraged — the NFL’s lone Christmas game averaged 20.94 million. In the three years since 2020, the NFL has delivered four of its six largest Christmas Day audiences, and that is with results still to come for Monday’s Giants-Eagles game on FOX.
