Sports Ratings Tracker

FOX topped Week 2 of the NFL preseason with a 2.6 rating and 4.90 million viewers for a Sunday night Seahawks-Titans game August 23, down from the network’s lone preseason game last year, a higher-profile pairing of the Bears and Bills in the same Sunday night window (5.1M).

ESPN averaged a 1.8 rating and 3.40 million viewers for its lone preseason game, Raiders-Texans on August 20, with those figures rising to 2.0 and 3.65 million including local over-the-air simulcasts in the home markets. ESPN last year averaged 2.90 million for Bengals-Commanders, not including the OTA simulcasts.

On NFL Network, Cowboys-Seahawks topped the Week 2 slate with a 1.1 and 2.32 million on August 22, preceded by Rams-Chiefs at a 1.0 and 2.03 million and Browns-Bears at a 0.8 and 1.61 million. The network drew a 0.9 and 1.68 million for Jets-Steelers the previous night , followed by a 0.7 and 1.49 million for Packers-Broncos.

Rams-Chiefs topped the first full week of the NFL preseason with a 1.2 rating and 2.38 million viewers on NFL Network last Saturday afternoon — up from Vikings-Texans last year (2.1M).

Packers-Steelers placed second with a 1.1 and 2.28 million on NFL Network two nights earlier, up from Colts-Ravens last year (1.89M). The Steelers’ win easily surpassed the competing MLB “Field of Dreams” game from Dyersville, Iowa, on Netflix the same night (0.7, 1.66M).

NFL Network also averaged a 1.1 and 2.23 million for Cowboys-Seahawks following Rams-Chiefs last Saturday night — up from Jets-Packers last year (1.73M) — and a 0.9 and 1.65 million for Browns-Bears in the first game of its Saturday tripleheader, down from the year-ago Giants-Bills (1.81M).

NFL preseason games averaged 2.2 million viewers across TV and digital platforms, up 17% from last year and the highest average since 2018. That includes an average of 1.8 million for games on NFL Network, the league-owned channel’s largest preseason audience on record and an increase of 26% from last year.

NFL Network had its most-watched preseason game since 2015 with 49ers-Raiders averaging 2.5 million viewers on August 16.

In addition to the previously noted 5.1 million viewers for Bears-Bills on FOX and 6.2 million for the Chargers-Lions Hall of Fame Game on NBC, ESPN averaged 2.90 million for Bengals-Commanders on August 18 and CBS drew 2.56 million for Vikings-Titans on August 22.