After digging a rare double-digit hole in Week 1, NFL viewership has now pulled ahead of last year through Week 5.
NFL regular season windows were averaging 18.8 million viewers across TV and digital platforms through Week 5, up 1% from last year to rank as the highest at this point of the season on record. The season opened with a 13% decline in Week 1, with that narrowing to 4% after Week 2 and 2% after Week 3.
Game windows averaged 17.3 million in Week 5 of the season, up 5% from last year and the highest Week 5 average since 2019.
Currently trending at a decade-plus high are CBS (19.48M), which is having its most-watched season in the Nielsen people meter era; “Monday Night Football” (19.3M), which is having its most-watched season since 1999; and “Thursday Night Football” (17.52M) which is having its most-watched season since 2015.
Note that out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen estimates until 2020 or fully accounted for until 2025, that this is only in the second year of a new Nielsen methodology integrating “Big Data” from smart TVs, set-top boxes and first party data with its traditional panel, and that Nielsen has recently tweaked its measurement to better account for co-viewing of games.
FOX topped the Week 5 charts with an 11.6 rating and 26.70 million for last Sunday’s late doubleheader window, featuring 49ers-Seahawks in most markets — up 21% in ratings and 31% in viewership from last year (mostly Commanders-Chargers: 9.6, 20.33M), and the third-largest audience of the NFL season.
The network aired the top two Sunday windows, with the first half of its doubleheader at a 7.9 and 17.41 million — up sharply from a 5.2 and 10.55 million last year.
Placing second for the week, “Monday Night Football” (Bills-Rams) averaged 19.8 million across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and for the first time, NFL Network — down 11% from Chiefs-Jaguars last year (22.3M), but otherwise the most-watched Week 5 edition of “MNF” since Vikings-Packers in 1998 (23.9M).
For the second time in a row, “MNF” delivered the top primetime audience of the week. NBC’s Ravens-Falcons “Sunday Night Football” game averaged an 8.2 and 17.02 million, down 22% from Patriots-Bills last year (21.9M per Nielsen and Adobe Analytics), and the network’s lowest rated and least-watched game of the season.
The Falcons played three-straight primetime games, and two of the three were the least-watched of the season on the respective network. (The previous week’s Falcons-Saints “Monday Night Football” game averaged a 5.7 and 11.82 million on ESPN and ESPN2.)
Returning to the afternoon windows, CBS drew a 7.4 and 16.62 million for its singleheader (Colts-Steelers in 40% of markets) — down from last year’s 9.1 and 19.56 million, which was the network’s most-watched singleheader in any week since 2013.
NFL Network started Sunday off with a 3.6 and 8.10 million for the Eagles-Jaguars International Series game, a figure that includes over-the-air simulcasts in the home markets — up 20% and 23% respectively from Vikings-Browns last year (3.0, 6.60M). The game averaged a 3.0 and 6.65 million on NFL Network alone, still up a tick and 10% respectively from the equivalent figure for Vikings-Browns (2.9, 6.04M).
Traditionally, OTA simulcast viewership has not been included in the viewership reported for NFL games on cable. Those figures have been calculated in the past, but usually were only reported as part of a Nielsen syndication ranker that typically comes out two weeks after the company’s other releases. That has changed this season.
Rounding out the Week 5 slate, Prime Video averaged a 7.3 and 16.7 million for Buccaneers-Cowboys on “Thrusday Night Football,” which as previously reported was the largest audience on record for a Week 5 edition of “TNF.”
