Tag: ratings

Apr 23, 2026; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes receiver Carnell Tate embraces NFL commissioner Roger Goodell after he is selected by the Tennessee Titans as the number four pick during the 2026 NFL Draft at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

NFL draft ratings dip 12%, still third-most watched ever

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Viewership of the 2026 NFL Draft dropped 12% year-over-year with an average of 6.6 million viewers across all networks for the three-day event, according to Front Office Sports.

Despite the drop from 2025’s three-day average of 7.5 million viewers, the 2026 version was the third-most-watched draft since 2010 when the league adopted a three-day format. The 2026 draft was broadcast on ABC, ESPN and NFL Network as well as on streaming services.

The 2020 draft, held virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic, has the record with 8.4 million viewers.

Ratings for the first round of the draft last Thursday were down 3% from 2025, with 13.2 million fans tuning in compared to 13.6 million last year.

While fewer people watched on TV, the event set a record for in-person attendance with a three-day total of 805,000 people on hand to watch in Pittsburgh. The previous in-person record was 775,000 set in Detroit in 2024.

–Field Level Media

Feb 4, 2026; Santa Clara, CA, USA; NBC Peacock television camera with Super Bowl LX logo at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Super Bowl LX ratings given late boost, still shy of record

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Nielsen adjusted the ratings for Super Bowl LX, bumping the final viewership numbers to 125.6 million.

The Seattle Seahawks’ victory over the New England Patriots was originally reported to have averaged 124.9 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, Telemundo and other digital platforms. Nielsen said the update was to due a Big Data provider not properly collecting data from its devices on game day.

The new figure still makes Super Bowl LX the second-most watched in history, trailing the record 127.7 million who watched last year’s Super Bowl. However, the Feb. 8 game, won 29-13 by Seattle, was the most-watched show in NBC history and drew a combined average household rating of 39.7.

–Field Level Media

NFL’s wild-card drama scores huge ratings

Posted on | by Field Level Media

The NFL’s blockbuster regular season rolled straight into wild-card weekend, and the audiences followed.

Fox opened Saturday with the Rams’ 34-31 victory over the Panthers drawing 28 million viewers, up 7% over last year in the same time slot for the biggest Saturday afternoon wild-card audience on any network since 2011, Front Office Sports reported.

Prime Video then shattered streaming records as the Bears’ 31-27 win over the Packers averaged 31.6 million, which is Amazon’s largest NFL audience by far and the most-watched exclusively streamed game in league history, topping Netflix’s late-afternoon Christmas matchup (27.5 million). The figure was 43% higher than last year’s streaming wild-card game on Amazon.

Sunday kept the surge going. CBS’s early window featuring the Bills’ 27-24 win over the Jaguars delivered 32.7 million viewers, the best early Sunday wild-card number on record for any network.

Fox’s late game, the 49ers’ 23-19 victory over the defending champion Eagles, led the entire weekend at 41 million for Fox’s biggest wild-card audience since 2015. It marked a 14% jump over the comparable slot a year ago.

NBC’s primetime game, with the Patriots ousting the Chargers 16-3, averaged 28.9 million, narrowly behind last year’s comparable game but still the most-watched Sunday night broadcast of any kind since last February’s Super Bowl.

ESPN’s numbers for the Texans’ 30-6 win over the Steelers on Monday night will arrive on Wednesday.

The early playoff spike aligns with the league’s regular-season average of 18.7 million viewers per game, the second highest since 1989, highlighting how every rights holder experienced growth this year, from major broadcasters to streamers.

–Field Level Media

CFP ratings plummet 7% as games opposite NFL struggle again

Posted on | by Field Level Media

While college football is big business, the NFL remains king as more evidence arrived from last weekend’s television ratings.

Even the first round of the College Football Playoff last Friday and Saturday struggled to compete against opposing NFL regular-season games on the airwaves.

The four first-round CFP games had an average TV audience of 9.9 million viewers, down 7% from the first round last season that had an average of 10.6 million viewers across ABC, ESPN and TNT, according to Front Office Sports.

By comparison, two NFL games on Saturday averaged 18.4 million viewers per game.

The biggest audience for a first-round CFP game last weekend came on Friday against no NFL competition, when traditional powers Alabama and Oklahoma drew an audience of 14.9 million viewers.

Miami and Texas A&M played an early game Saturday, before NFL games kicked off, and had an audience of 14.8 million.

The two later CFP games on Saturday struggled while overlapping the Saturday NFL slate. It did not help that those CFP games both included Group of Six teams.

While Tulane-Ole Miss drew 6.2 million viewers, the NFL game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders, which started over an hour later, had 15.5 million. James Madison-Oregon (4.4 million) did not come close to competing with the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears (21.3 million).

It is an ominous sign for the CFP, which appears to be moving toward a 16-team postseason that would add four more first-round games.

The CFP-NFL discrepancy is not just limited to this year. According to the FOS report, first-round CFP games in both 2024 and 2025 that did not overlap with NFL broadcasts averaged 14.3 million viewers. Those that did overlap with the NFL had an average of 6.4 million.

–Field Level Media

Heisman presentation scores highest ratings in 13 years

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Saturday night’s Heisman Trophy presentation to Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza drew the largest television audience for the event since 2012.

The show averaged 4.3 million viewers on ABC, the highest number since 2012 when 4.9 million watched Texas A&M signal-caller Johnny Manziel become the first freshman to win the prestigious award.

It was the first time the audience topped 4 million since 2013 (4.18 million) and the first to even exceed 3 million since 2015 (3.06 million), according to Nielsen.

Saturday’s audience peaked at 5.8 million, a 69% increase from the previous year on ESPN (2.52 million).

ESPN aired the Heisman Trophy presentation from 1994-2024. The last time it was presented on broadcast TV before Saturday was in 1993 on NBC.

Mendoza has guided the unbeaten Hoosiers (13-0) to the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. He has passed for 2,980 yards with an NCAA-best 33 touchdowns and six interceptions.

–Field Level Media

Viewership of NFL Network international games sets record

Posted on | by Field Level Media

The 2025 NFL International Games on NFL Network set the record for viewership.

The network said Wednesday that the six games — one in Dublin, three in London, one in Berlin and one in Madrid — drew an average of 6.2 million viewers via television and digital media.

The average number of viewers was 32% higher than the 2024 games on NFL Network.

The Miami Dolphins’ 16-13 overtime win against the Washington Commanders, played Sunday at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, averaged 5.9 million viewers, putting it in the top five international games ever aired by NFL Network. In the final 13 minutes, the game had more than 8 million people watching at its peak.

–Field Level Media

Sep 15, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; A broadcast camera is wrapped in a Monday Night Football logo before the game between the Houston Texans and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

NFL ratings continue to soar into October

Posted on | by Field Level Media

The NFL is continuing to enjoy soaring television ratings, with games through Week 5 averaging a viewership of 18.58 million.

That is up 8 percent from the comparable average last year and 9 percent from 2023. It also represents the second highest mark at this point in the season in league history behind only 2010, according to Front Office Sports.

The highest-rated game this season remains the average of 33.8 million viewers for Philadelphia’s victory over Kansas City in Week 2, but the NFL’s ratings have maintained momentum despite competition from college football and the Major League Baseball playoffs.

The ratings figures have received a boost from Nielsen’s new “Big Data + Panels” measurement product, which includes figures from set-top boxes and smart televisions. And the viewership spikes have been enjoyed across broadcasters.

CBS’s early-afternoon window led by the Broncos-Eagles game in Week 5 averaged 19.6 million viewers, the network’s highest since regaining NFL rights in 1998. Meanwhile, Fox averaged 20.3 million for the Commanders at Chargers last Sunday, with “America’s Game of the Week” in the afternoon slot now up 3 percent.

Week 5 concluded with Jacksonville’s dramatic comeback victory at home against Kansas City on Monday night. The game averaged 22.3 million viewers, the most since ESPN began airing “Monday Night Football” games in 2006.

–Field Level Media

Sep 28, 2025; Dublin, Ireland; The Irish, NFL shield logo and United States flags and NFL shield logo at midfield at an NFL International Series game at Croke Park. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

NFL’s soaring ratings continue with Dublin, SNF hits

Posted on | by Field Level Media

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 24-21 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL’s debut game in Dublin drew 7.9 million viewers last Sunday, while the league closed out the night with an average of 26.9 million people watching Green Bay and Dallas battle to a 40-40 tie in prime time.

The viewership for the Dublin game, which includes television and digital but not OTA numbers, is the second most-watched international game ever on the NFL Network, according to the league. It is topped only by the 2024 Miami-Kansas City game played in Frankfurt, Germany.

The 7.9 million figure represents a 68 percent increase over the NFL Network’s average for it’s 2024 international games. The Steelers-Vikings also drew an average more than nine million viewers between 12:30 p.m. ET and the end of the game.

This season’s international games continues with three consecutive games in London beginning with the Vikings playing the Cleveland Browns at Tottenham Hostpur Stadium at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the highly anticipated game between the Packers and Cowboys that saw pass rusher Micah Parsons return to Dallas for the first time ranked as the third most-watched game of the season. It has been topped only by the average of 28.3 million viewers for the Cowboys’ game against the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL’s season kickoff game on Sept. 4, and the 33.8 million viewers for the Super Bowl rematch between the Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2.

The Packers-Cowboys game saw NBC bring its “Football Night in America” pre-game show to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and halftime included the announcement of Bad Bunny as the halftime act for Super Bowl LX.

Through the first four weeks of the season, NBC is averaging 25.5 million viewers for its Sunday night games, up 6 percent from last season.

It continues a trend that saw viewership of all NFL games through Week 3 averaging 20.5 million viewers.

–Field Level Media

Buffalo Bills running back James Cook carries the ball almost into the end zone on this plus 10-yard carry during the second half of their game against the Baltimore Ravens at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park on Sept. 7, 2025.

NFL Week 1 delivers big ratings to networks

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Television networks reported a record number of viewers for Week 1 NFL games.

The ratings were determined using Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel audience measurement system, which utilizes more metrics to figure the numbers than in the past.

CBS said late Tuesday that its overall average was 20.38 million viewers, with the national game between the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers averaging 23.89 million viewers.

The network said both measurements were the highest in Week 1 since 1998.

Fox said its Week 1 NFL singleheader slot averaged 17.9 million viewers, the most for any network in that category since 2015.

NBC’s airing of the Buffalo Bills’ comeback win over the Baltimore Ravens averaged 24.7 million viewers. That figure is the best for a Sunday opener in three years.

–Field Level Media

[US, Mexico & Canada customers only] Sep 5, 2025; Sao Paulo, BRAZIL; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) reacts in the second half against the Los Angeles Chargers at Corinthians Arena. Mandatory Credit: Amanda Perobelli/Reuters via Imagn Images

YouTube touts 16.2M viewers for Chiefs-Chargers game in Brazil

Posted on | by Field Level Media

YouTube reported a Nielsen-measured audience of 16.2 million viewers of its broadcast of the second game of the NFL season last Friday.

The AFC West showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil, which took place in Sao Paulo, kicked off the league’s International Series for the 2025 season.

The Google-owned YouTube also estimated global viewership at 1.1 million, bringing the total figure to approximately 17.3 million.

ESPN was among other networks which disputed the reported figures because Nielsen used a “custom methodology” for Chargers-Chiefs, which would lend itself to an unfair comparison to other networks. Moreover, since February, Nielsen is using out-of-home viewing in its calculus, which will reflect higher numbers than in previous years.

By comparison, the 2025 YouTube broadcast compares favorably with the 2024 game between the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles game on Peacock, also in Brazil, which drew 14.2 million viewers. It fell just short of Amazon Prime Video’s top-streamed game of last season, the Packers-Detroit Lions contest, which drew 17.3 million.

Netflix’ pair of 2024 Christmas Day NFL streamed broadcasts reported 24 million viewers for each game.

The Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles game, which kicked off the 2025 season on Sept. 4, averaged 28.3 million viewers on NBC/Peacock. The game peaked at 34.3 million, but an hour weather delay caused it to fall short of the all-time record of the 29.2 million average, set by Baltimore Ravens-Chiefs in the 2024 season debut.

–Field Level Media