Ratings Roundup: ESPN Has Most-Consumed College Football Season Across All Networks, ESPN+ Has Most Streams

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, ABC has most-watched PAC-12 game ever; Chiefs-Packers on NBC and Peacock Is Most-Watched Week 13 SNF ever; and more.

Season-to-Date, Sunday NFL Countdown is Experiencing its Best Audience in Eight Seasons

Sunday Countdown is on pace for highest viewership since 2016 through week 13

• 1.4 million viewers per show
• Year over year growth:
  • +11% overall
  • +13% P18-49

Average of Over 45 Million Viewers Watched Thanksgiving Day Football in 2023, According to Custom Survey

The NFL commissioned a custom survey from Nielsen to complement Nielsen’s audience measurement data and provide further insights into how many people in the U.S. watched NFL football on Thanksgiving Day, particularly in group settings. ​

According to the custom study, the average audience across all three Thanksgiving Day games was 45.4 million – a 33% increase from the 34.1 million viewers reported to have watched the games, the largest Thanksgiving Day average audience on record. Additionally, the Green Bay Packers versus Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders versus Dallas Cowboys games each averaged approximately 50 million viewers.

Watching football has become a Thanksgiving holiday tradition for scores of NFL fans, many of whom gather to watch the games in group settings that are larger than normal, and often outside of their homes. The custom survey of 5,091 households, which was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago using the AmeriSpeak panel, sought to examine the size of these viewing groups.

“Thanksgiving Day has become synonymous with family and friends coming together and watching NFL games,” says Paul Ballew, chief data and analytics officer of the NFL. “As we have done previously for Thanksgiving Day and the Super Bowl, studies such as this are crucial to understanding the full viewership for our games.”

“With the gatherings of friends and families, plus a full slate of NFL games, Thanksgiving is one of the most unique days for television viewership every year,” says Deirdre Thomas, chief product officer at Nielsen. “This custom survey provides another lens for estimating viewership during widespread events such as this, and we’re glad to continue helping the NFL better understand the full scope of its vast audiences.”

Nielsen’s National TV measurement service utilizes a panel of over 100,000 respondents in over 42,000 homes, and includes both out-of-home viewing and co-viewing in its audience estimates.

ESPN Platforms Boast Banner Year for College Football, as ABC Leads the Way with Most Total Minutes Watched and ESPN+ Streams the Platform’s Most-Watched Season Ever

The 2023 college football season will go down in the record books as the most-consumed on record across all networks, and ESPN platforms rose to the challenge with multi-year viewership highs and the most-watched season ever for ESPN+. ABC led the way across all networks and media companies with more total minutes watched than any other individual network, as 24% of the sport’s viewers tuned in to ABC.

ESPN platforms delivered their second most-watched season since 2016, averaging nearly 1.7 million viewers per game across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. ABC finished on par with the 2022 season, producing its second-best season since 2017 with nearly 4 million viewers. ESPN aired its second most-watched season since 2017, averaging just over 2 million viewers.

ESPN+ scored its most-watched season ever, with college football games on the platform up 3% year-over-year in unique viewers and up 8% in minutes. This fall also saw ESPN+ register the top two days ever for live college football content (Sept. 2 & Sept. 9), and the platform presented three of the top four most-watched college football games ever for ESPN+ (No. 1: UT Martin at Georgia – Sept. 2; No. 3: Austin Peay at Tennessee – Sept. 9; No. 4 SMU at Oklahoma – Sept. 9).

ESPN is the Home of College Football

• ESPN platforms scored four of the top 10 games this season, tied for the most of any media company.
• ESPN platforms presented 21 of the top 50 games this season.
• ESPN platforms televised the top 27 games on cable this season.
• ESPN platforms were responsible for 46 percent of college football live game minutes viewed across nationally rated linear networks. This is the largest share of any media company, and more than the second and third companies combined.
• ESPN platforms aired the most-viewed college football game in primetime in 8 of 13 weeks.
• There were 11 games across nationally rated networks to draw more than 9 million viewersthis season, the most in a single season in nearly three decades. ESPN platforms aired four of these games, the most ESPN has registered since the 2008 season.

Individual Game Highlights

• ABC’s Week 1 Florida State-LSU (9.2M viewers) became the network’s most-watched Sunday opener since 2016.
• ESPN’s Week 1 Florida-Utah (3.2M viewers) was ESPN’s most-watched Thursday opener since 2017.
• ESPN’s Week 2 Texas-Alabama (8.0M viewers) became a top-10 regular season college football audience on record for the network (10th).
• ESPN’s Week 3 Colorado State-Colorado (9.3M viewers) became the network’s fifth best regular season audience on record, and propelled ESPN to its most-viewed college football regular season Saturday since November 2014. It was also ESPN’s most-streamed regular season game on record.
• ABC’s Week 4 Colorado-Oregon (10.0M viewers) was the most-viewed Pac-12 conference game since 2006.
• ABC’s Week 6 Oklahoma-Texas (7.9M viewers) ranks as the second-best Red River Rivalry in a full national window on record.
• ABC’s Week 7 Oregon-Washington (7.0M viewers) was the network’s second-best delivery in the late afternoon window in five seasons.
• ESPN’s Week 13 Florida State-Florida (5.1M viewers) recorded the network’s best Thanksgiving weekend audience since 2018.
• ABC’s Pac-12 Championship Game (9.2M viewers) was the most-viewed ever, and a top 5 regular season game for the network over the past five seasons.
• ABC’s ACC Championship Game (7.0M viewers) recorded the fourth-best audience ever for this game and the second most-watched since 2014.

Local Market Ratings Roar in Primetime:

ESPN Saturday Primetime Football

ABC Saturday Night Football Presented by Capital One

Lucky 13: ESPN’s Monday Night Football Delivers 16.5 Million Viewers, Most-Watched Week 13 MNF Game in 13 Seasons

ESPN’s Monday Night Football matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Jacksonville Jaguars (December 4, 8:15 p.m. ET) delivered 16.5 million viewers (ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and NFL+), the most-watched Week 13 MNF game since 2010 (Jets-Patriots). The audience of 16,484,000 was up 46% year-over-year (Saints-Buccaneers). Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli generated 1 million viewers on ESPN2.

Season-to-date, Monday Night Football is averaging 16.7 million viewers per game through Week 13, up 29% from the same point last season (15 games this season vs. 14 in 2022). The impressive numbers include all televised games, including Week 3 which featured two overlapping games vs. one in the 2022 season. Excluding this year’s Week 3, Monday Night Football would be up 31% year-over-year, averaging 17 million viewers a game.

More Bengals-Jaguars:

• Audience averaged nearly 18 million viewers late in the fourth quarter through overtime (11 – 11:45 p.m.).
• Monday Night Football was the most watched telecast of the night and led across all key demos.

FOX NFL Week 13 Delivers an Average of 27.7 Million Viewers

• Up +18% over last year’s comparable window

Chiefs-Packers on NBC and Peacock Is Most-Watched Week 13 SNF Game Ever, Averaging 26 Million Viewers