The NFL was — as it just about always is — the biggest thing on TV in the fall. Every one of the league’s weekly broadcast partners saw an uptick in ratings for the just completed regular season compared to 2024.
With a number of record-setting games (and a change in the way Nielsen measures viewing), Amazon, CBS, ESPN, Fox and NBC all saw their audience numbers grow year to year. Amazon, CBS and NBC are all claiming record years, and ESPN and Fox enjoyed sizable gains as well.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football is on track to be the No. 1 primetime show on TV for the 15th straight year, with a cross-platform average of about 23.5 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, up about 9 percent year to year. SNF had eight games with a cross-platform audience of 25 million or more this season, the most ever, and the streaming audience on Peacock (plus NBC Sports Digital and NFL digital properties) averaged 2.5 million viewers, up from 2.2 million in 2024.
Led by a record-smashing audience on Thanksgiving, CBS recorded its best NFL viewership on record with an average of 21.25 million viewers, an 11 percent improvement vs. 2024. The weeks when CBS had the late afternoon Sunday game averaged 25.83 million viewers, making it the No. 1 show on TV for the 2025-26 season so far.
Fox’s late afternoon Sunday contests are a close second with 25.28 million viewers. For the full regular season, the network’s NFL telecasts averaged 19.63 million viewers, up 6 percent from last season and Fox’s best performance since 2015.
Amazon delivered 15.33 million viewers (including local over-the-air broadcasts) for its 15-game Thursday Night Football slate, capped by a Prime Video record of 21.06 million on Christmas night. TNF grew 16 percent year to year for its best showing since moving to streaming. Monday Night Football on ESPN and ABC is also up double digits with an average of close to 16 million viewers.
One significant caveat: Nielsen changed the way it measures ratings this year to include both a big data component and out of home viewing for 100 percent of the country (up from about 67 percent previously), which has benefited live sports telecasts. Some of the ratings gains can be attributed to those changes, but what’s not in dispute is the NFL’s place as TV’s biggest audience driver.
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