How many people watch the NFL? The National Football League seems to be as popular as ever, coming off a season that saw a new Super Bowl champion for the first time in three years. With so many great teams around the league, NFL television ratings are dominating the market more than ever before, as football remains the most-watched thing on television.
We’ll be tracking NFL TV ratings throughout the season. Ahead of Week 3, here are the NFL television ratings from Week 1 through Week 3 with games on YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, NBC, FOX, ESPN and CBS. After Week 4, we’ll start tracking the most-watched NFL games in 2025.
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Week 3 NFL TV Ratings
Here are the NFL television ratings for Week 3, from Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime VIdeo to a Monday Night Football clash between the Detroit Lions and Baltimore Ravens on ESPN/ABC.
| Broadcast | Network | Matchup | Avg. Viewers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday Night Football | Amazon Prime | Dolphins vs Bills | 16.45 million |
| CBS Afternoon | CBS | Multiple | 16.5 Million |
| Fox Afternoon | FOX | Cowoys vs Bears | 25.47 million |
| Sunday Night Football | NBC | Chiefs vs Giants | 25.3 Million |
| Monday Night Football | ESPN | Lions vs Ravens | 22,85 million |
- Thursday Night Football: In Amazon’s second game of the season, a less exciting clash than the Commadners vs Packers in Week 2, Thursday Night Football still averaged over 16 million viewers on Prime Video. That marks a 23 percent increase compared to the Week 3 game last season (Jets vs Patriots), the second consecutive week Amazon’s TNF ratings increased.
- FOX: Some of the highest NFL TV ratings this season to date came from the Week 3 matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears. In Ben Johnson’s first win as an NFL head coach, FOX averaged 25.47 million viewers.
- Sunday Night Football: While there weren’t many fireworks in the SNF game between the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Giants, NBC still pulled in its second-largest audience of the season with 25.3 million viewers tuning in. It was a slight uptick over the Week 3 SNF game in 2024 (25.1 million).
- ESPN – A highly-anticiapted matchup between the Ravens and Lions on Monday Night Football, delivered Disney (ABC, ESPN and ESPN2) its most0-watched Monday Night Football game in years.
Week 2 NFL TV Ratings: Super Bowl Rematch Draws Big Numbers
After pulling in one of its biggest Week 1 audiences ever, the NFL delivered a slate of Week 2 matchups that included a Super Bowl rematch (Philadelphia Eagles vs Kansas City Chiefs), a Monday Night Football doubleheader (Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs Houston Texans and Los Angeles Chargers vs Las Vegas Raiders) and its first Thursday Night Football game of the season (Washington Commanders vs Green Bay Packers).
Here are the NFL television ratings from Week 2.
Notes on Week 2 NFL television ratings
- Thursday Night Football – Amazon Prime Video’s first TNF broadcast of the season averaged 17.76 million viewers, peaking at 20.35 million viewers midway through the game. It was Amazon’s most-watched Thursday Night Football game ever, topping the Lions vs Packers game in 2024.
- Fox Late Afternoon Game: In a Week 2 rematch of the Super Bowl, with the Eagles defeating the Chiefs again, FOX’s primary late afternoon broadcast averaged 33.8 million viewers. It breaks the record for the most-watched Week 2 game ever, topping the previous mark (28 million) for the Chiefs vs Bengals matchup in Week 2 of last season.
- Sunday Night Football – NBC’s SNF duel between the Minnesota Vikings and Atlanta Falcons, a defensive battle, averaged 21.5 million viewers. It breaks NBC’s record for the most-watched Sunday Night Football Week 2 game.
- Monday Night Football – ESPN/ABC had its first Monday Night Football doubleheader of the season in Week 2, with the next coming in Week 4. The early MNF game averaged 17.4 million viewers, while the late-game kickoff for the Chargers vs Raiders dropped to 9.7 million. However, it still finished as the most-watched MNF doubleheader in ESPN’s history.
NFL TV Ratings for Week 1
Here is a quick breakdown of the NFL TV ratings from Week 1, starting with the NFL Kickoff Game on NBC between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles to ESPN’s Monday Night Football clash between the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears.
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- NFL TV ratings for Week 1 (average): 22.3 million viewers
Notes on Week 1 NFL TV ratings
- NFL Kickoff Game: The first game of the 2025 NFL season averaged 28.3 million viewers despite a one-hour lightning delay, falling below last season’s NFL Kickoff Game (Ravens vs. Chiefs), which averaged 29.2 million viewers. However, the Cowboys vs. Eagles matchup averaged 31.9 million viewers before the weather delay suspended play for just over an hour.
- Brazil Game: Streamed exclusively on YouTube, viewership for the Chiefs vs. Chargers game is more uncertain, given it was self-reported and not measured by traditional methods. However, it still drew a significantly larger audience than the 2024 Brazil game, which was streamed on Peacock (14.2 million).
- CBS Primary Game: An NFC North battle between the Lions and Packers, with the added buzz of Micah Parsons’ debut at Lambeau Field, averaged nearly 24 million viewers. It was the most-watched Week 1 NFL game on CBS since 1998.
- Sunday Night Football: A playoff rematch between the Ravens and Bills delivered NBC its best TV ratings for a Week 1 Sunday Night Football game since 2022 (Buccaneers vs. Cowboys). Across its two Week 1 broadcasts, NBC averaged over 26 million viewers.
- Monday Night Football: The NFC North came up big for NFL TV ratings in Week 1. J.J. McCarthy’s NFL debut and the head-coaching debut of Ben Johnson brought in 22.1 million viewers for the Monday Night Football clash between the Vikings and Bears. That marked an 8 percent increase from last season’s MNF opener, when Aaron Rodgers and the Jets faced the 49ers.
- Total: Week 1 averaged 22.3 million viewers across NBC, ESPN, CBS and FOX. It marks a 5 percent increase from last season and a 19 percent increase from the 2023 season.
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