NFL has highest regular-season viewership since 1989

There's a loose assumption that NFL viewership has only gotten larger and larger. The facts suggest otherwise.

Yes, the numbers are increasing. This year, televised NFL games averaged 18.7 million viewers, via Sports Business Journal.

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It's the biggest number since 1989. Which means that, in 1989, more people were watching NFL games on TV than they currently are.

Still, the current trend is the NFL's friend. Fueled by the new Nielsen metric for calculating out-of-home consumption, the reported viewership has increased by 10 percent over 2024. Which means, frankly, that the past numbers were too low.

Per the report, CBS, NBC, and Prime Video had their best full-season average audiences. Fox had its best season since 2015. ESPN had its second best season, behind 2023 — when a writers' strike resulted in most of the Monday night games being simulcast on ABC.

It's still odd to think that, in 1989, more people were watching NFL games. Still, there are far more options now than there were then. The fact that the NFL continues to pull massive live audiences together is impressive, and in the current landscape unique.

And the really big numbers are coming, when the playoff games will generate audiences that dwarf most regular-season games.