After viewership pulled ahead of last year’s pace in Week 5, the NFL extended its lead in Week 6 of the season.
NFL regular season windows were averaging 18.5 million viewers through Week 6 of the season, up 2% from the same point last year (18.2M) and officially behind only 2015 (18.7M) and 2010 (18.6M) as the highest six-week average in the Nielsen people-meter era.
The season-to-date average is actually lower than the prior week (18.8M) — which was the highest at that point of the season on record — but viewership is now pacing further ahead of last year than at any point this season.
After opening with a double-digit decline in Week 1, which featured competing doubleheaders for the first time in three years, the NFL has steadily dug itself out of that hole. Viewership was still down four percent after Week 2 and two percent after Week 3 before pulling ahead by one percent in Week 5.
Week 6 of the season averaged 17.0 million, up 7% from last year (15.9M) and officially the highest average in that week of the season on record.
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.
CBS topped the Week 6 slate with an 11.8 rating and 26.37 million viewers for its late doubleheader window, which featured Bills-Raiders in 68% of markets and Chargers-Chiefs in 32% — down 6% and 2% respectively from coverage featuring 49ers-Buccaneers last year (12.5, 26.82M), but still the fourth-largest audience of the season on any network.
The game faced unusual MLB Postseason competition, as Game 5 of the ALCS was postponed from Saturday into the competing late Sunday afternoon window. (Typically, Sunday LCS games air in primetime.) While the game was obviously no match for the NFL with 3.35 million, that is nonetheless more than enough competition to make a difference.
NBC’s Cowboys-Packers “Sunday Night Football” game placed second with an 11.6 and 24.66 million, down from last year’s combined Nielsen and Adobe Analytics audience of 27.3 million for Lions-Chiefs. Viewership also trailed the same matchup on “SNF” last season, a 40-40 tie that averaged 26.9 million in Week 4 of the season.
The Packers’ comfortable win still ranks as the second-most watched Week 6 edition of “SNF.”
On “Monday Night Football,” Commanders-49ers scored 17.9 million across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, NFL Network, ESPN Deportes and NFL+ — trailing only Cowboys-Chargers in 2023 (19.6M) as the most-watched Week 6 edition of “MNF” since Buccaneers-Vikings in 2000 (21.99M). (There is no relevant comparison to Week 6 last year, when ESPN and ABC aired an overlapping doubleheader in which the former averaged 10.0 million for Bills-Falcons and the latter 12.9 million for Bears-Commanders.)
Rounding out the primetime slate, Seahawks-Broncos averaged a 7.0 and 16.27 million on Amazon Prime Video “Thursday Night Football” — as previously noted, the largest Week 6 “TNF” audience on record. “Thursday Night Football” is one of three packages averaging a decade-plus high this season (17.29M), along with “Monday Night Football” (19.0M) and the CBS package (19.56M).
(Note that Nielsen has reprocessed viewership for three Prime Video games, with Lions-Bills in Week 2 adjusted from 18.60 to 18.95 to 19.00 million, Falcons-Packers in Week 3 adjusted from 16.82 to 16.95 million, and Steelers-Browns in Week 4 adjusted from 16.59 to 17.49 million.)
Returning to the afternoon windows, FOX averaged a 6.7 and 14.48 million for its singleheader — down from a 7.6 and 15.37 million last year — and CBS a 6.8 and 14.29 million for the first half of its doubleheader (Panthers-Eagles in 56% of markets), up from a 6.7 and 13.80 million a year ago.
NFL Network led off the Sunday slate with a 2.9 and 6.39 million for the Texans-Jaguars International Series game from London, down 15% in ratings and 3% in viewership from Broncos-Jets last year (3.4, 6.60M), including local over-the-air simulcasts in both years. On NFL Network alone, the game averaged a 2.6 and 5.85 million — still down in ratings but up slightly in viewership from last year’s 2.8 and 5.45 million.
