There are further signs that this year’s NFL Draft did extremely well on television. Following a first round Thursday that averaged 13.6 million viewers across ESPN and NFL Network TV and digital streams (per Nielsen), the second-highest ever, the Nielsen fast nationals for the second round Friday were also the second-highest ever and saw a 40% year-over-year rise. Here’s how the NFL relayed that information on X Saturday:
🚨2025 NFL Draft Rounds 2-3 Viewership🚨
2nd Most-Watched Day 2 on Record!
7.3 million* avg. viewers across ESPN2, @nflnetwork & ABC — up more than 40% vs. 2024
*Based on Nielsen fast national pic.twitter.com/PtynoIBdeZ
— NFL Media (@NFLMedia) April 26, 2025
Notably, the 40% year-over-year rise for the second round was much larger than the 11% year-over-year rise for the first round (which was the most-viewed outside of the unique 2020 draft). Some of that may have been about the increasing angst around where Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders (who wasn’t taken until the third day) would go.
That fall had many, including ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., quite incensed. But it may also have led to more widespread fan interest in the second round. Along those lines, it will be interesting to see the eventual Day 3 numbers to see if there was a possible Sanders effect there too.
The larger takeaway is that there remains massive interest in this draft, though. As per the league, there were also more than 200,000 fans in attendance at the first night alone, and cities are lining up like crazy to bid for the event down the road (which, as Scott Hanson noted to Awful Announcing earlier this week, is a far cry from when the draft’s old home of Radio City Music Hall in New York City no longer wanted to keep it).
Beyond that, the TV and digital numbers here support comments such as the “This is our Super Bowl” from Bleacher Report’s Tyler Price on how much this matters to many media outlets. These large numbers and year-over-year increases suggest that will continue for some time.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.