NFL Opening Week Breaks Records with Highest Viewership Since 2019
NFL kicks off with record-breaking viewership, up 12% from last year. NBC leads with the most-watched game, streaming surges 60%.
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The NFL had a strong start to its season, with more people watching the games compared to last year. According to Nielsen, viewership in the first week went up by 12%, with 123 million people tuning in for at least part of a game. This marks the highest number of viewers for opening week since 2019.
NBC Takes the Lead with Most-Watched Game
Hans Schroeder, the executive vice president of NFL Media, expressed his excitement over the positive start. “It’s great to see such high numbers. We’re excited to be back,” he said in an interview with ESPN.
🚨Week 1 @NFL Viewership🚨
*Total audience of 123.0 million viewers — highest Week 1 total audience since 2019
*21.0 million avg. viewers (TV+Digital) per game — most-watched Week 1 on record & up +12% vs. 2023
*Strong performances for NBC, FOX, CBS & ESPN/ABC pic.twitter.com/8oJayihDpr
— NFL Media (@NFLMedia) September 11, 2024
The most-watched game of the week was NBC’s broadcast of the Kansas City Chiefs’ 27-20 win over the Baltimore Ravens in the Thursday night opener. This game drew in an average of 29.2 million viewers, making it NBC’s second-most-watched regular-season game since 2006 when they started broadcasting Sunday Night Football.
The opening game on September 5 was available on NBC, Peacock, and other digital platforms. With 29.2 million people watching, the game had 9% more viewers compared to last year’s first game. On TV alone, 24.56 million viewers tuned in, while 4.64 million people streamed the game online. TV viewership was slightly down from last year’s 24.75 million, but streaming saw a huge 60% increase compared to last year.
Fox and Monday Night Football Perform Well
Fox’s Sunday afternoon game also attracted a large audience, especially because it marked Tom Brady’s debut in the commentary box. The game drew 23.93 million viewers, making it another hit of the week.
Both Monday Night Football and Sunday Night Football performed strongly as well. Monday Night Football had 20.5 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and online streaming platforms. On the other hand, Sunday Night Football had 20 million viewers on NBC, and the total went up to 22.8 million when streaming numbers were added in.
Historic Game Broadcast from South America
For the first time in NFL history, a game was broadcast live from South America. The Philadelphia Eagles faced off against the Green Bay Packers in a game streamed live from Brazil. This game attracted 14 million viewers across Peacock and local Brazilian channels, which is almost double the audience from Peacock’s last game broadcasted in December 2023.
Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football
Week two of the NFL season began with Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime. The Buffalo Bills won against the Miami Dolphins with a score of 31-10. The game pulled in about 14.96 million viewers, making it the third-largest audience for a Thursday Night Football game on Amazon Prime since they started broadcasting. Although this was slightly less than last year’s opener, it was still well above the 2023 average of 11.83 million viewers.
New Streaming Plans for NFL
The NFL plans to continue pushing its streaming services later in the season. For the first time, two Christmas Day games will be streamed on Netflix, offering viewers more ways to watch their favourite teams.