The NFL season got off to a ho-hum start in the ratings by the league’s lofty standards.
Last Wednesday’s Patriots-Seahawks NFL Kickoff Game averaged 25.1 million viewers on NBC — a Nielsen-only figure that includes NBC’s first party data — down from last year’s combined figure of 28.3 million across a Nielsen-only linear audience (23.3M) and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics (4.9M).
NBC is no longer reporting a combined Nielsen + Adobe Analytics figure for NFL games, and will instead utilize a Nielsen-only number that includes its first-party streaming data. The network also used a Nielsen-only figure for its previous NFL telecast this year, the Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl in February.
This year’s Kickoff Game is officially the most-watched as measured by Nielsen since 2021, but compared to previous years’ combined Nielsen + Adobe figures, it was the least-watched since 2022.
Viewership for the NFL Kickoff Game since it began airing on NBC
Functionally, the Nielsen-only figures should amount to the same as when NBC was combining Nielsen with Adobe Analytics, as the first-party streaming data tracked by Adobe is now included in the Nielsen-reported number.
A key difference is that the Adobe Analytics data was not being broken out by demographic, meaning that the young audiences who are overrepresented on streaming were not reflected in any age-related data reported by NBC — whether the demos themselves or median age. With those viewers now included in the Nielsen-issued data, NBC stands to benefit from larger audiences in the younger demographics. Already, NBC said Monday that the Kickoff Game was the most-watched in adults 18-49 (10.0M) since 2021, with the obvious caveat that the equivalent figures in prior years did not include streaming.
The Seahawks’ comeback win, which peaked with 27.4 million viewers in the 9 PM ET quarter-hour, averaged an additional 423,000 viewers on Telemundo.
The following night’s 49ers-Rams International Series game from Melbourne, Australia, averaged 18.5 million on Netflix. Last year’s equivalent Week 1 International Series game, Chiefs-Chargers from Brazil on YouTube, averaged the same audience on a Friday night — but last year’s YouTube figure was based on a custom Nielsen methodology that was not directly comparable to those of other networks.
The 49ers’ win, which peaked with 21.3 million in the 9:30 PM ET quarter-hour, was the least-watched of the five NFL games on Netflix thus far. Keep in mind that the other four each aired on Christmas Day, when viewing levels are considerably higher.
Viewership outpaced last year’s Thursday night meeting of the 49ers and Rams on another streaming service, Amazon Prime Video — a Week 5 contest that averaged 14.79 million. It also topped their Week 15 “TNF” matchup on Prime two years ago, which drew 12.29 million. It might go without saying that expectations would be higher for a Week 1 game.
