NFL viewership continues to trend up, even amidst declines for some of the league’s highest-profile windows.
NFL games have averaged 18.1 million viewers across the league’s primary broadcasters through Week 13 (including first-party streaming), the highest average at this point of a season since 2013. Beyond the usual caveat regarding out-of-home viewing (which was not tracked in Nielsen estimates until 2020), keep in mind the figure excludes games that aired solely on NFL Network, Peacock or ESPN+. As goes without saying, the average is lower with those windows included.
The 11-year high is despite a downward trend for some of the league’s marquee windows. The NFL national window has declined in four of the past six weeks (and six of the past nine), including this past Sunday — when coverage featuring Eagles-Ravens averaged a 12.4 rating and 25.16 million viewers on CBS, down 10% and 9% respectively from coverage featuring 49ers-Eagles last year (13.8, 27.70M).
Despite the decline, the telecast still delivered the eighth-largest Nielsen-measured audience of the NFL season, with CBS owning six of the top ten.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football has posted a decline in eight of 13 weeks this season, with this past week’s 49ers-Bills game at a 10.4 and 20.41 million — down 18% and 13% respectively from a blue-chip Chiefs-Packers pairing last year (12.7, 23.57M).
As with the national window, SNF still delivered one of its top audiences of the season, trailing only Chiefs-Falcons in Week 3 (22.51) and Cowboys-49ers in Week 8 (21.67M).
As previously noted, ESPN’s Monday Night Football has declined in all-but-one week this season, and that excludes apples-to-oranges comparisons like the one which occurred this week — when Browns-Broncos on averaged a 6.4 and 11.87 million on ESPN alone, down 32% and 28% respectively from Bengals-Jaguars last year on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 (9.3, 16.44M).
Picking up some of the slack, the CBS early window has increased double-digits in most weeks this season. That includes Sunday, when the network drew 16.9 million for coverage featuring Steelers-Bengals — up 38% from last year on FOX (mostly Lions-Saints: 12.2M). Whether as the first half of a doubleheader or a single game, CBS has been particularly strong in the early window this season, topping out at 19.7 million for the first half of its Week 11 doubleheader two weeks ago.
(The FOX early window has not had the same success. The network’s Week 13 singleheader — featuring Cardinals-Vikings — drew 13.5 million, down 6% from 14.4 million on CBS a year ago.)
Also on the rise this season has been Thursday Night Football, which this week features a Packers-Lions matchup that is likely to rank among the most-watched games yet on Amazon Prime Video.
