Cowboys-Lions is most-watched ‘Thursday Night Football’ game of Prime Video era

Thursday Night Football on Prime Video has set a new high watermark.

Last Thursday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions earned a record-setting audience of 19.39 million viewers on Prime Video, well surpassing the previous record of 17.76 million viewers for a Washington Commanders-Green Bay Packers game in September of this year. The Lions’ win was up 12% versus last year’s comparable game, 17.29 million viewers for Packers-Lions, which itself was a record at the time.

Prime Video is now averaging 15.20 million viewers for Thursday Night Football this season, up 15% versus the 2024 full-season average (13.20 million viewers), 28% versus the 2023 average (11.86 million), and 59% versus the 2022 season (9.58 million). The streamer has seen growth in each successive year it has owned the Thursday night package.

As with all viewership measurements since September, Prime Video’s numbers are from Nielsen’s new Big Data + Panel measurements which have generally served to increase audience figures for live sports. The numbers also include Nielsen’s expanded out-of-home viewing measurements, which were introduced in February.

Both changes have likely contributed to Thursday Night Football earning year-over-year increases in 11 of its 13 telecasts so far this season. Of course, it’s also likely that in Year 4 of owning the package, viewers have simply gotten used to tuning into Prime Video on Thursday nights.

Regardless of the methodological changes, it’s clear that Prime Video has substantially increased its audience since its debut season in 2022. Fans are becoming more accustomed to watching NFL games via streaming, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise as the technology becomes ubiquitous.

Just a week earlier, Prime Video also set a record for its Black Friday game, averaging 16.33 million viewers for a Chicago Bears-Philadelphia Eagles contest.