The usual methodological caveats abound, but the NFL officially recorded its highest regular season audience in more than three decades.
The 2025 NFL regular season averaged 18.7 million viewers per telecast window (per Nielsen and Adobe Analytics), up 10% from last year and officially the league’s most-watched season since 1989. Figures include all telecast windows except for the Chiefs-Chargers game on YouTube in Week 1 (which used a custom methodology not comparable to other games).
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 February of last year, meaning that all prior years include less out-of-home viewing (if any at all). In addition, Nielsen in September shifted to a new “Big Data + Panel” methodology that combines its traditional panel with data from smart TVs, set-top boxes and select providers’ internal first-party estimates (including Amazon and Netflix).
Those two changes could account for much, or even all, of the increase over last season — to say nothing of seasons from 10 or 20 years ago, when all Nielsen reported data was based solely on the company’s in-home panel.
Even so, all television properties have been subject to the same Nielsen methodological changes, and few if any others have come away with a 36-year high over the course of a four-month season.
CBS, NBC, claim top honors
CBS was the most-watched of the NFL broadcasters on a Nielsen-measured basis, averaging 21.25 million for its game windows — up 11% from last year and its highest average since it resumed airing NFL games in 1998. That includes an average of 25.83 million for its late doubleheader windows, the highest of any individual NFL telecast window. After trailing for 15 consecutive seasons from 2008-22, CBS topped FOX in the late window for a third-straight year.
But NBC was the most-watched broadcaster if one includes data from Adobe Analytics, which measures the network’s streaming viewership on Peacock and other digital platforms. The NBC windows averaged 23.5 million across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, up 9% from last year (21.6M) and its highest since resuming NFL coverage in 2006.
On a Nielsen-only basis, NBC games averaged a 10.3 rating and 21.0 million viewers, up 5% and 8% respectively from last year’s 9.8 and 19.4 million. Adobe Analytics added 2.5 million, up 17%. While NBC trailed CBS in Nielsen-measured viewing, it averaged a higher household rating (10.3 to 9.6). (Though the CBS national window still came out ahead with a 12.0.)
FOX placed third for the season with 19.63 million, up 6% from last year (18.44M), with its late doubleheader window at 25.28 million — also up 6% from last year’s 23.94 million. In both cases, it was the network’s highest average since 2015.
Moving beyond the Sunday broadcasters, ESPN/ABC averaged 16.5 million for its full 23-game package — up 10% from last year — and 15.8 million for its “Monday Night Football” games (+9%).
As previously noted, Amazon Prime Video averaged 15.33 million for “Thursday Night Football” (+16%), not including its Black Friday game (16.33M).
With the exception of Prime Video, each of those gains are within the margin that can be mostly, or even entirely, explained by Nielsen’s methodological changes.
It is official Nielsen policy to compare the current “Big Data + Panel” figures to last year’s panel-only estimates, but because Prime Video publicized its “Big Data + Panel” numbers last season, it is possible to make an apples-to-apples comparison. Comparing this year’s Big Data average to the same figure last season, Amazon’s year-over-year increase was cut in half to eight percent. That is still a solid increase, but a similar impact for the other networks would reduce their gains to the low single-digits at best.
ESPN/ABC tops Week 18
As for the regular season finales, ESPN/ABC topped Week 18 with 27.5 million for Seahawks-49ers on Saturday night — up 25% from Bengals-Steelers last year and the third-most watched regular season game on the Disney networks since “Monday Night Football” moved primarily from ABC to ESPN in 2006. Panthers-Buccaneers led in with 21 million.
NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” ranked second, with an audience of 25.5 million for its Ravens-Steelers thriller (including Adobe Analytics) — down from more than 28 million for Vikings-Lions last year.
With CBS and FOX airing competing doubleheaders, the CBS national window averaged a 9.4 rating and 19.63 million viewers and its secondary window pulled a 7.8 and 15.79 million. Figures for the Week 18 FOX windows were not immediately available.
As might go without saying, the Chiefs-Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game was the most-watched of the season with 57.3 million on CBS, the largest recorded audience for any regular season NFL game. (It was also the highest rated with a 15.1.) Kansas City, which missed the playoffs with a 6-11 record and lost QB Patrick Mahomes to a torn ACL, played in four of the five most-watched windows.
