The NFL season finished as the most-watched in eight years, with viewership up nearly across the board.
The NFL regular season averaged 17.9 million viewers across the league’s various broadcast partners (a figure that includes streaming), up 7% from last season and the highest average since 2015. Keep in mind out-of-home viewing was not tracked in Nielsen’s final nationals prior to 2020.
With the exception of FOX, all of the major NFL broadcast partners posted an increase during the season. CBS had its most-watched season since resuming NFL coverage in 1998 with an average of 19.35 million overall (+5%) and 24.64 million for its late doubleheader window — edging the equivalent window on FOX (24.62M) as the most-watched regular NFL window on any network.
This year marked the first time since 2007 — when CBS was the primary home of the undefeated Patriots — that the network has topped the charts. In addition to airing the most-watched window of the season, CBS also owned the top individual game, scoring over 40 million for Commanders-Cowboys on Thanksgiving.
NBC had its most-watched season since 2015 with an average of 21.4 million for Sunday Night Football (19.9 million per Nielsen, plus a streaming audience of 1.56 million per Adobe Analytics), up 8% from last year (up 6% on a Nielsen-only basis).
With ABC carrying games in every week of the season, Monday Night Football had its most-watched season since 2000 with an average of 17.36 million — up 29% from last year. The season included the four most-watched editions of MNF since 2000, including an Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl rematch in November that delivered the series’ top audience since 1996.
Finally, Amazon Prime Thursday Night Football posted a 24 percent increase in its second season, averaging 11.86 million.
As previously noted, FOX was an exception to the rule as its average of 19.02 million declined 2% from last year (19.42M). The network’s late doubleheader window (“America’s Game of the Week”) bucked the trend with an average of 24.62 million, up 2% (from 24.13M).
NFL Network averaged 7.46 million for its eight exclusive windows, also down from 7.64 million for seven games a year ago.
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