NFL's 2024 season kickoff breaks viewership records, witness 12% rise

The opening week of the NFL ‘s season for the year delivered an unprecedented average of 21. 0 million viewers for each game across TV and digital media and equal to last year’s average viewership while experiencing a 12% growth compared to the prior year. This is the first time that Week 1’s audience has been higher than 25.9 since Nielsen started its electronic measurement in 1988.

The rise compared to last year

The audience for a game watched at least part of it, with 123 million people tuning in, the largest number since 2019 for the opening week. The blow-by-blow coverage of the NFL 2019 Kickoff Game involving the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs defeating the Baltimore Ravens, 27-20 on Thursday night brought in an average viewership of 29. 2 million viewers. 

It was also the second most-watched regular season match up on the NBC since the network signed the ‘Sunday Night Football’ deal in the year 2006.

Lions game attracting the audience

The Sunday night game of the NFL which ended in the Detroit Lions winning 26-20 in overtime against the Los Angeles Rams was viewed by 22. 7 million viewers for a 3% overall increase from the prior year. Tom Brady’s first game as Fox’s lead analyst dining the Cowboys 33-17 win over the Browns received an average viewership of 23. 93 million. 

When Fox had a double of six games including four early evening games and two night games it averaged 18. 64 million viewers and it was the best Week 1 viewership that the network has recorded in the last two years.

This season also saw Fox exclusively cover Sunday afternoon doubleheader for the first time since 2020, unlike the previous three consecutive years when both CBS, and Fox aired two of them each. CBS averaged 17. Sixteen-point-four million for its six games, the most for a Week 1 singleheader since NBC regained the NFL rights in 1998.

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First in 54 years

The first Friday Night football game in 54 years which was between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers landed on 14. There are 1 million viewers in Philadelphia, Green Bay, and Milwaukee on Peacock and NBC stations. It became the second most-watched live event in Peacock history with viewership that was a little below the previous season’s AFC wild-card game. 

Monday Night Football" on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+ averaged 20.4 million for the 49ers' 32-19 win over the Jets despite most DirecTV customers not being able to receive it due to its carriage dispute with Disney (the only way they could watch it is if their ABC affiliate was not owned by Disney, which was not the case for DirecTV customers in New York and San Francisco). The average was down from the 22.7 million for last year's opener between the Jets and Buffalo.

The first game of the season, on September 5, aired on NBC and Peacock, along with other digital channels. This game led the week with 29.2 million viewers. That’s about 9% more than last year's opener. The TV audience alone was 24.56 million, but 4.64 million watched through streaming. TV viewership dipped slightly from 24.75 million, but streaming jumped by over 60% compared to last year.

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