By now, there have been so many headlines about NFL ratings being up throughout the course of the 2025 regular season that they all seem to blend together.
Pretty much every network and every broadcast window saw viewership gains throughout the 2025 season. So it stands that the NFL as a whole would naturally set some historic viewership records.
On Wednesday, the NFL recapped its incredible season in the ratings department. Highlights include a 10% viewership increase over the 2024 regular season and an average of 18.7 million viewers per game. That total stands as the second-highest season average on record, only falling behind the 1989 regular season when the television landscape was vastly different.
🚨2025 NFL Regular Season Viewership🚨
🏈18.7 million avg. viewers per game — 2nd highest season avg. on record
🏈Up +10% vs. 2024
🏈@NFL programs rank as 89 of the top 100 shows on TV since the start of the 2025 regular season pic.twitter.com/BVWlO6fKxq
— NFL Media (@NFLMedia) January 7, 2026
Of course, we are contractually obligated to mention that a decent chunk of the NFL’s ratings increases this year came from the new Nielsen Big Data measurement system for ratings. But what’s difficult to know is whether or not this year’s jump was because past numbers were undercounted, or if there’s still some refining to do with the present numbers. Whatever the case, the NFL is growing the gap between itself and the competition as the most popular sports or entertainment product in the country. The NFL is responsible for 89 of the Top 100 television shows since the 2025 season got underway.
The average viewership was boosted by the all-time record Thanksgiving audience that saw more people watch a regular-season game than ever before, when 57.3 million people watched the Chiefs-Cowboys game. But that wasn’t all, as numerous windows throughout the season set new benchmarks.
Given these regular-season numbers and the way NFL ratings keep going up, it would not be a shock at all to see record playoff numbers this January and a new viewership record for Super Bowl LX in February.
About Matt Yoder