NFL sees second highest TV ratings on record for regular season
The NFL closed the regular season with an average audience of 18.7 million per game across TV and digital, the league's second-highest mark since Nielsen began tracking in 1988 and just shy of the 1989 record of 19.0 million.
The 2025 figure marked a 10% rise from last season (17.5 million) and 7% from 2023, per league and Nielsen data.
Measurement changes helped widen the lens. Nielsen's newer Big Data + Panel system was used all season, and out-of-home viewing is now counted nationwide (except Alaska and Hawaii) alongside data from smart TVs and traditional set-top boxes. Earlier methods covered only the top 44 markets.
Every weekly package climbed year over year. Amazon's "Thursday Night Football" led the surge, up 16% to 15.33 million -- the best Thursday slate since the package launched in 2006 and up 60% from Prime Video's first exclusive season in 2022. Eight TNF games cleared 15 million, with the Broncos-Chiefs game on Christmas night averaging 21.06 million, a Prime regular-season high.
CBS posted its best regular season on record at 21.25 million (11% increase) and dominated the late-Sunday window (25.83 million) for a third straight year. The Chiefs-Cowboys Thanksgiving game delivered 57.23 million viewers, making it the most-watched regular-season game in NFL history, and CBS aired four of the 10 biggest games.
NBC's "Sunday Night Football" averaged 23.5 million (9% increase) and remains on track to finish as primetime's No. 1 show for a 15th consecutive season.
ABC/ESPN's "Monday Night Football" averaged 15.8 million for its 21-game slate (second-best since moving to ESPN in 2006) and 16.5 million when including two Week 18 Saturday games. Five MNF games topped 20 million viewers this season.
Fox averaged 19.63 million (6% increase), its best since 2015. "America's Game of the Week" drew 25.28 million on average in the late afternoon slot, including 33.8 million for an Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl rematch in September.