Sports Ratings Tracker

The Dallas Cowboys remain an embarrassment of riches for the NFL's media partners, helping "Thursday Night Football" record its best Week 5 audience.

The latest edition of NFL "Thursday Night Football" (Buccaneers-Cowboys) averaged 16.73 million viewers on Prime Video, including local over-the-air simulcasts in the home markets -- officially the largest audience on record for "TNF" in Week 5 of the season. The previous high was 16.54 million for Vikings-Packers on CBS and NFL Network in 2014.

The lights were less bright in Week 4 of the NFL season.

The latest edition of NFL "Monday Night Football" (Falcons-Saints) averaged 11.9 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, including local over-the-air simulcasts in the home markets -- down 8% from the average for ESPN-only games last season (12.9M).

There is no apples-to-apples comparison to Week 4 last year, when "MNF" featured an overlapping doubleheader of Jets-Dolphins on ESPN (8.5 million, not including over-the-air simulcasts) and Bengals-Broncos on ABC (13.2M).

The Dodgers began their quest for a third-straight World Series title with a viewership high.

Saturday's Braves-Dodgers MLB National League Division Series Game 1 averaged a 2.4 rating and 5.37 million viewers on FOX, marking the most-watched LDS Game 1 since Yankees-Red Sox on TBS in 2018 (5.57M) and the highest rated since Guardians-Yankees in 2022.

The Dodgers' win increased 20% in ratings and a third in viewership from Yankees-Blue Jays in the same window last year (2.0, 4.0M).

The WNBA followed up its most-watched opening round of the playoffs with a pair of near highs to start the second.

The opening round of the WNBA Playoffs averaged 1.30 million viewers across ESPN/ABC, Prime Video and USA Sports, up 37% from last year (944K) and the highest average on record, surpassing the previous mark of 1.11 million in 2024. Like the 2024 postseason, this year's first round featured a healthy Caitlin Clark, who missed last year's playoffs due to injury.

It was like the old days for CBS on Saturday, as the network's 3:30 PM ET window was the most-watched of the college football weekend.

Saturday's Ohio State-Iowa college football game averaged 5.97 million viewers on CBS, marking the network's largest college football audience on a competitive regular season weekend since USC-Michigan in 2024 (6.32M). CBS has averaged larger audiences for the Army-Navy Game and its lone Big Ten Championship, but those games faced limited or no competition.

If there was any question whether the Kansas City Chiefs would return to form, both on the field and in the ratings, they have been answered early in this NFL season.

Sunday's Week 4 NFL national window, featuring Chiefs-Raiders in 69% of markets, averaged 28.45 million viewers on CBS -- marking the largest NFL audience of the ongoing season, and the top Week 4 audience on any network in the Nielsen people meter era (1988-present).…

On a night with winner-take-all games in Major League Baseball and the WNBA, NFL "Thursday Night Football" went unscathed.

The latest edition of NFL "Thursday Night Football" (Steelers-Browns) averaged 16.59 million viewers on Amazon Prime Video, up 19% from Seahawks-Cardinals last year (13.94M) and the most-watched Week 4 edition of "TNF" since Eagles-Packers on FOX and NFL Network in 2019 (17.91M).

(Note that out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen estimates until 2020 or fully…

NHL Opening Night viewership slipped opposite tougher competition, but the league recovered on the second night of the season.

Tuesday's NHL Opening Night tripleheader averaged 747,000 viewers on ESPN, down 3% from 768,000 last year, when the season started a week later and faced less competition from the Major League Baseball playoffs.

Rangers-Bruins was the top game of the night with 878,000 viewers, down 19% from Penguins-Rangers a year ago (1.09M). Its Panthers-Hurricanes lead-in was not far behind with 859,000, up 16% from Blackhawks-Panthers last year (743K) and the league's most-watched Opening Day matinee since Penguins-Flyers on NBCSN in 2021.

A five-month Fever finally subsided Thursday, but not before generating one more milestone audience for the WNBA.

Thursday's Fever-Aces first round WNBA playoff Game 3 averaged 2.25 million viewers on USA Network, marking the third-largest WNBA playoff audience on record outside of the WNBA Finals -- trailing only Fever-Sun Game 2 on ESPN in the first round two years ago (2.54M) and Sparks-Comets Game 2 on NBC in the 1999 Western Conference Finals (2.62M).

(The official Nielsen "Big Data + Panel" viewership figure ended up being virtually identical to the panel-only number that was reported Friday -- 2.25 million.)

Imagine if the Red Sox had shown up.

Wednesday's Red Sox-Yankees American League Wild Card Series Game 2 averaged 7.41 million viewers on NBC, trailing only last year's winner-take-all Game 3 between the same two teams (7.44M) as the most-watched Wild Card game since the round expanded to a best-of-three format in 2022.

The Yankees' blowout win, which peaked with 9.2 million viewers in the 9:30 PM ET quarter-hour, increased 10% from last year's Game 2 between the same teams on ESPN (6.76M).

The early trend in NFL viewing has been strong audiences that are nonetheless down from a year ago.

Through the first three weeks, NFL game windows were averaging 20.0 million viewers across the league's various media partners -- down slightly from 20.5 million last year, but otherwise the highest average at this point of a season in the Nielsen people-meter era (dates back to 1988).

Week 3 of the season averaged 20.2 million, down from last year, but as with the overall average still the second-most watched on record.

After all these years, Red Sox-Yankees is still the biggest television draw in baseball.

Tuesday's Red Sox-Yankees MLB American League Wild Card Series Game 1 averaged 7.3 million viewers across NBC platforms, per a Nielsen-measured audience that includes NBC's first-party streaming data -- marking the second-most watched Wild Card game under the best-of-three format that began in 2022. Only last year's Red Sox-Yankees Game 3 on ESPN averaged a larger audience (7.4M).

The Yankees' win, which peaked with 8.5 million, increased 12% from Game 1 of last year's Wild Card Series between the same two teams on ESPN (6.5M).

ABC swept a second-straight college football Saturday, led by the biggest Noon audience of the young season.

Last Saturday's Texas-Tennessee college football game averaged a 4.6 rating and 9.75 million viewers on ABC, marking the largest Noon ET audience of the young season and third-largest across all windows. Texas has played in two of the top three, with their week two win over Ohio State placing first (13.99M).

The Longhorns' win, which peaked with 12.9 million, also ranks as the most-watched Noon Saturday game on the ESPN networks since 2016.

Caitlin Clark's return to the playoffs helped the WNBA extend its momentum from a milestone regular season.

Sunday's Fever-Aces first round WNBA playoff Game 1 averaged a 1.2 rating and 2.11 million viewers on ABC, marking the largest WNBA playoff audience on the broadcast network, and the third-largest across all networks since 2000.

The Aces' blowout win trailed a pair of 2024 playoff games, the deciding Game 5 of the WNBA Finals (Lynx-Liberty: 2.15M) and the clinching Fever-Sun Game 2 in the first round (2.54M).

Two of the most entertaining NFL games of the young season could not quite measure up to the equivalent year-ago windows.

Sunday's NFL national window, featuring the Ravens-Cowboys International Series game from Brazil in 95% of markets, averaged 24.90 million viewers on CBS -- down from last year's Week 3 national window, which aired on FOX (mostly Cowboys-Bears: 25.47M). Viewership also declined from two years ago, when the same Ravens-Cowboys matchup aired on FOX (27.29M).

Despite the decline, the telecast was still the most-watched Week 3 window on CBS since 2014.

"Thursday Night Football" hit a second-straight viewership high to start the season.

The latest edition of NFL "Thursday Night Football" (Falcons-Packers) averaged 16.82 million viewers on Amazon Prime Video, a figure that includes local over-the-air simulcasts in the home markets -- marking the most-watched Week 3 edition of "TNF" since Texans-Patriots on CBS and NFL Network in 2016 (17.55M).

(Note that out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen estimates until 2020 or fully accounted for…

The longest-tenured WNBA broadcaster had its most-watched season yet.

WNBA games averaged 1.37 million viewers across the ESPN networks during the regular season, up 17% from last year and the highest average yet for the company, which has carried the league dating back to its inaugural season in 1997. In particular, ABC averaged 1.56 million and ESPN 1.24 million, up 9 and 32 percent respectively from a year ago.

While last year's WNBA season ran into the beginning of the new Nielsen "Big Data + Panel" era, comparisons are to last season's panel-only viewership.

After a double-digit decline in Week 1, NFL viewership bounced back in Week 2 of the season -- with the league's schedule making much of the difference in both weeks.

NFL game windows averaged 20.4 million viewers during Week 2 of the season, up 6% from last year and the highest average for the second week of play in the Nielsen people meter era (dating back to 1988).

Week 2 marked a rebound from the opening week of the season, which declined 13% from last year to an average of 19.5 million.

The decision to discontinue the "Monday Night Football" doubleheaders paid off immediately in Week 2 of the NFL season.

Giants-Rams averaged 19.4 million viewers in the Week 2 edition of "Monday Night Football" on the ESPN family of networks, up 21% from Buccaneers-Texans last year, which aired in an earlier 7 PM ET window as part of a doubleheader. (Last year's Chargers-Raiders nightcap had 9.7 million.)

The Rams' win delivered the largest Week 2 "MNF" audience since 1999, when Falcons-Cowboys averaged 21.53 million on ABC.

Already this season, four of the five largest NFL audiences have been for games featuring the league's two biggest draws, the Cowboys and Chiefs.

Sunday's Week 2 NFL national window (Commanders-Cowboys in most markets) averaged 27.21 million viewers on FOX, down from an Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl rematch in the same week last year (33.8M), but the largest audience of the young NFL season.

The Cowboys' first two games this season rank as the two most-watched thus far, with their season opener against the Giants on NBC's "Sunday Night Football" placing second at 25.66 million.

Lane Kiffin's return to Mississippi topped the charts on a college football weekend dominated by ABC/ESPN.

Saturday's LSU-Mississippi college football game averaged 10.90 million viewers on ABC, marking easily the most-watched game of the weekend and the second-most watched of the young season. The Tigers' loss, which peaked with 13.7 million, increased 43% from Florida-LSU in the same window last year (7.64M).

Viewership fell short of the previous week's top five pairing of Ohio State and Texas, which drew just shy of 14 million in the same ABC "Saturday Night Football" window.

"Thursday Night Football" got off to its most-watched start since moving to Amazon Prime Video, edging the previous week's Netflix game in the process.

The season premiere of NFL "Thursday Night Football" (Lions-Bills) averaged 18.60 million viewers on Amazon Prime Video last week, including over-the-air simulcasts in the home markets -- up 5% from Packers-Commanders last year (17.76M) and the most-watched season premiere of "TNF" since 2015, when Broncos-Chiefs averaged 21.12 million on CBS and NFL Network.

A near miss for the American men produced a strong finish for the U.S. Open.

The U.S. Open tennis tournament averaged 1.17 million viewers on the ESPN family of networks, up 4% from last year and the highest average for the event since 2022, which at the time was thought to be Serena Williams' final tournament (1.21M).

Last Sunday's Alexander Zverev-Ben Shelton men's final averaged a 1.7 rating and 3.23 million viewers on ABC, up from Carlos Alcaraz-Jannik Sinner last year (3.0M), and the largest audience for the event since 2013, when Rafael Nadal's win over Novak Djokovic averaged 3.43 million on CBS.

The NFL suffered a rare double-digit decline in viewership in Week 1 of the season, albeit with some context mitigating the drop.

Week 1 of the NFL season averaged 19.5 million viewers, down 13% from last year (22.3M), down 7% from 2024 (21.0M) and the least-watched opening week of the season since 2023 (18.7M). This year marks the first time since the COVID-altered season of 2020, when games faced unprecedented competition from the NBA and NHL playoffs, that viewership has declined in Week 1 of an NFL season.