A Thanksgiving viewership feast helped make Week 13 of the NFL season the league’s most-watched on record.
NFL games averaged a Nielsen-estimated 27.0 million viewers in Week 13 of the season (including Adobe Analytics for NBC games), marking the highest average for any week of any NFL season in the Nielsen people meter era (dates back to 1988). Viewership increased 17 percent from Week 13 of last season, which also coincided with the Thanksgiving holiday.
The record audience was fueled by the league’s Thanksgiving Day average of 44.7 million viewers, easily its highest ever on the holiday. The Thanksgiving slate included the two largest NFL regular season audiences on record, 57.23 million for Chiefs-Cowboys on CBS and 47.67 million for Packers-Lions on FOX and Tubi.
Keep in mind that Nielsen did not begin tracking out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020 and did not do so in 100 percent of markets until earlier this year, giving present-day figures an advantage over all past years — particularly those prior to 2020. In addition, Nielsen in September rolled out a new “Big Data + Panel” methodology that combines its traditional panel with viewership from smart TVs, set-top boxes and some providers’ first party streaming data (including Amazon), a change that has generally (though not always) resulted in higher viewership figures.
In the household ratings — which by definition do not include out-of-home viewing — Chiefs-Cowboys (15.1) and Packers-Lions (13.4) were the highest rated games in their particular Thanksgiving windows since 1999 and 2014 respectively.
The holiday lineup also included Bengals-Ravens at a 8.9 and 25.37 million on NBC Thanksgiving night (rising to 28.4 million across all NBC platforms) and Bears-Eagles at a 6.2 and 16.33 million on Amazon’s Prime Video Black Friday.
As for the usual NFL windows, the week’s top game outside of Thanksgiving was the Sunday national window, which averaged a 12.5 and 26.27 million on CBS — up a tick in ratings and 4% in viewership from last year (mostly Eagles-Ravens: 12.4, 25.16M). It was the most-watched Sunday Week 13 window on CBS since 2014, though it should be noted that FOX had a larger audience in that slot just two years ago (mostly 49ers-Eagles: 27.70M).
The first half of the network’s doubleheader drew a 7.7 and 15.57 million, down from a year ago (16.9M). That topped the competing FOX singleheader at a 7.3 and 14.88 million, though that was up from last year (13.5M).
In primetime, the Broncos’ overtime win over the Commanders drew a 9.0 and 17.48 million to NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” with that rising to 19.4 million including Adobe Analytics — down from 49ers-Bills last year (10.4, 20.41M, 22.5M).
Figures for the latest edition of “Monday Night Football” (Patriots-Giants) were not immediately available. For the second-straight week, “MNF” aired exclusively on cable. (The prior week’s telecast, 49ers-Panthers, averaged 13.35 million across the ESPN cable networks.)
Overall, NFL games accounted for eight of the ten most-watched television programs during Thanksgiving week, the exceptions being the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC and the Ohio State-Michigan college football game on FOX (8.0, 18.42M).
NFL games windows were averaging 18.6 million viewers through Week 13, which the league says is its highest 13-week average since 1989. Viewership is up 7% from the same point last year, though that is within the range that could be explained by Nielsen’s previously-noted methodological changes.
