The NFL status as the most-watched sports league reached a new level in 2023 as the league accounted for the industry’s top 50 U.S. audiences.
The NFL generated the 56 largest sports audiences of 2023, a first in the 14 years this annual list has been compiled. The milestone can be attributed in part to the fact that there were zero College Football Playoff semifinals in the calendar year. (The 2022 semis took place on December 31, 2022, and the 2023 semis on January 1, 2024.)
As usual, the Super Bowl and conference championship games delivered the year’s top three audiences.
50 most-watched sporting events of 2023
50 most-watched (non-NFL) sporting events of 2023
Outside of the NFL, the top sporting event of the calendar year was the Ohio State-Michigan college football game with 19.07 million viewers on FOX. Thanks to the scheduling of the CFP semifinals, college football topped the 20 million mark on the day before 2023 began and the day after it ended, but not once in between.
College football delivered the top three non-NFL audiences of 2023, with the SEC Championship placing second (17.52M) and Georgia’s rout of TCU in the national championship ranking third (17.22M). The national championship of men’s college basketball was the top non-football event (14.69M).
Top events by sport
As usual, a number of sports did not make the top 50 with or without the NFL included. The FIFA Women’s World Cup topped out at 7.59 million for the United States-Netherlands in group play (a figure that includes pre-match coverage). The top NHL audience of the year was just 3.10 million for a Panthers-Bruins first round Game 7 on TNT. Below is a list of the most-watched games in select sports.
