Ratings Roundup: 2025 Secures the Highest Viewership for NFL International Games on Record; Broncos vs Chiefs Nets Nearly 29M Viewers, Most-Watched CBS Sports Program of the Week
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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, 2025 NWSL Playoffs sees a double digit viewership jump on ABC and ESPN+ networks; Monday Night Football’s Week 11 matchup hits over 17.5 million viewers; and more.
ESPN Scores Most-Watched State Farm Champions Classic in Three Years
- Doubleheader averaged 1.7M viewers, +5% (Tuesday, Nov. 18)
- Kansas-Duke: 1.9M viewers, +2% YoY (Peak:2.1M)
- Most-Watched:
- Men’s college basketball telecast of the season across all networks
- Sports event of the day
- Best late championships classic game in six years
- Most-Watched:
- Michigan State – Kentucky: 1.6M viewers, +11% YoY (Peak: 1.8M)
- Beat early champions classic game in three years
2025 NWSL Playoffs on ABC and ESPN+ Nets Double-Digit Viewership Increase
The 2025 NWSL Playoffs presented by Ally delivered strong year-over-year growth across ESPN platforms, highlighted by double-digit increases in both quarterfinal matchups.
Overall, the three 2025 NWSL Playoffs games averaged 388,000 viewers across ABC and ESPN+, marking a 12 percent increase over the postseason average of 345,000 on the same networks in 2024. The strong performance underscores the league’s continued momentum and growing fan engagement.
Game-by-game breakdown:
- This year’s Kansas City Current-Gotham FC quarterfinal averaged 435,000 viewers, a 15 percent increase over last season’s opening playoff match between Washington Spirit and Bay FC.
- The second quarterfinal, Portland Thorns vs. San Diego Wave, posted an average audience of 391,000 viewers, up 23 percent from last year’s Gotham FC-Portland Thorns match.
- The Orlando Pride-Gotham FC semifinal on Sunday averaged 328,000 viewers, down one percent from the comparable Orlando Pride-Kansas City Current semifinal in 2024.
NWSL Playoffs on ABC and ESPN+ audience:
2024 | Avg. P2+ | 2025 | Avg. P2+ | YoY % Diff. |
Quarterfinal I: WAS-Bay FC | 378,000 | Quarterfinal I: KC-GFC | 435,000 | +15% |
Quarterfinal II: GFC-POR | 319,000 | Quarterfinal II: POR-SD | 391,000 | +23% |
Semifinal: ORL-KC | 331,000 | Semifinal: ORL-GFC | 328,000 | -1% |
2024 P2+ Average | 345,000 | 2025 (P2+) Average | 388,000 | +12% |
Monday Night Football’s Week 11 Matchup Between Cowboys and Raiders Draws 17.9 Million Viewers
2025 Has Most-Watched NFL Network International Games Season On Record
The 2025 NFL International Games on NFL Network averaged 6.2 million viewers* (TV+Digital) across six games (one in Dublin, three in London, one in Berlin and one in Madrid) – ranking as the most-watched NFL Network International Games season average on record.
The 6.2 million average viewers is up +32% versus last year’s slate of international games on NFL Network.
Sunday’s game at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid featuring the Miami Dolphins’ 16-13 overtime win over the Washington Commanders averaged 5.9 million viewers* (TV+Digital) – ranking as a top five NFL Network international game on record. Additionally, Commanders-Dolphins peaked with over eight million viewers in the final 13 minutes of the game.
Led By the Broncos’ Win Over the Chiefs, the NFL ON CBS Delivers the Most-Watched Program of the Week with Nearly 29 Million Viewers
- Led by Chiefs-Broncos, CBS Sports delivered the most-watched program of the week on any network with 28.890 million viewers
- “NFL on CBS” national game window at 4:25 PM ET ranks as the #1 program in all of television averaging 26.568 million viewers. This season, highest since NFL returned to CBS in 1998
- Sunday’s doubleheader averaged 22.741 million viewers, CBS Sports’ second-best Week 11 viewership since 1998, only trailing last year’s record audience led by Chiefs-Bills and Ravens-Steelers
- “NFL on CBS” has its best viewership since 1998 with 19.754 million viewers through Week 11
College GameDay Scores Best Week 12 Show Ever in Steel City Stop; ABC & ESPN Deliver Top Four Most-Watched Games of Week 12
College GameDay:
- Most-watched Week 12 episode ever (at Pitt)
- 2.6 million viewers
- From 9AM – noon ET
- Up 28% over ’24 Week 12 at Georgia
- From 9AM – noon ET
- 3.2 million viewers
- Final Hour+
- Beating the competition by 182%
- Final Hour+
- 2.6 million viewers
- Full show peak: 3.6M viewers
- Season-to-date, p acing +24%
- Second highest female composition on record (36%)
ABC/ESPN win the day, top 4 games of Week 12
- ABC delivers 2nd most-watched tripleheader of the season (8.2M viewers)
- 3rd time since 1996 a single network aired 2 games of 10M+ viewers (’24 Wk 8, ’25 Wk 1)
- ABC scores 7 games with 10M+ viewers in 2025 season, most in a single season on record
Oklahoma vs Alabama:
- 10.5M viewers on ABC
- Peak: 14.1M viewers
- Week 12’s most-watched game across all networks
- 5th most-watched game of the 2025 season
UT Austin vs UGA:
- 10.4M viewers on ABC
- Peak: 12.1M viewers
- Week 12’s most-watched primetime game
- 7th most-watched game of 2025 season
South Carolina vs Texas A&M:
- 4.3M viewers on ESPN
- Peak: 6M viewers
- Week 12’s most-watched noon game
- ESPN’s most-watched Saturday game since Week 3
Notre Dame vs Pitt:
- 4M viewers on ABC
- Peak: 4.5M viewers
- 4th most-watched game across all networks in Week 12
- Beat all non-ESPN nets in the noon window
FOX NFL Off to its Best Start to the Season Since 2016
17,241,000 average viewers watched FOX NFL’s Week 11 singleheader
- Up +12% over last year’s Week 11 delivery (15,407,000)
- Season-to-date, the NFL on FOX is off to its best start to the season since 2016, averaging 19,038,000 viewers and up +4% over last year’s season-to-date average (18,239,000)
With Five Games Remaining, TNF on Prime’s Expanding Reach Surpasses Last Season’s Total
Since the launch of exclusive coverage in 2022, Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football game and shoulder programming have achieved more growth than any major U.S. sports media property on linear or streaming. Thursday’s Jets-Patriots AFC-East clash delivered 13.45 million viewers, contributing to unparalleled advances spanning total viewership, key demographics, and according to the most recent data from Nielsen, TNF’s total reach.
TNF on Prime’s 2025 season has now reached 96.81 million unique viewers in the U.S., a milestone eclipsing last year’s regular-season total (91.10M) with five games still remaining on this year’s schedule. Looking back further, TNF’s reach has grown by almost 25 million unique viewers and counting since Prime Video’s inaugural 2022 season, which reached a total of 71.97 million.
Below, find additional viewership highlights from Jets-Patriots and the 2025 TNF on Prime season. Please note that all 2025 figures are from Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement.
- Thursday’s Jets-Patriots game averaged 13.45 million viewers, down slightly (-7%) vs. last season’s comparable game (14.42M, Commanders-Eagles, 11/14/2024).
- Thursday’s game attracted a peak audience of 15.43M viewers between 9:15 and 9:29 p.m. ET.
- TNF on Prime has now averaged more than 13M viewers nine times this season, surpassing last year’s total.
- Season-to-date, TNF is averaging 14.85M viewers, continuing its best season on Prime Video, and highest for TNF on any network since 2015.
- The 10-week average is up +12% vs. last year’s season-to-date average (13.20M), +12% over the 2024 full-season average (13.20M), +25% over the 2023 full-season average (11.86M), and +55% over the 2022 full-season average (9.58M).
- Based on the most recent available data*, TNF on Prime’s 2025 season has reached 96.81 million unique U.S. viewers, already surpassing the regular-season total for last year (91.10M), up +16% vs. 2023’s full-season figure (83.79M), and up +35% vs. the inaugural 2022 season (71.97M).
- Through 10 weeks, TNF on Prime is delivering double-digit gains across key demographics:
- Within the P18-34 demo, TNF is averaging 2.89M viewers, up +11% vs. last year’s full-season average (2.61M).
- Season-to-date, TNF on Prime continues to attract the largest P18-34 audience among all NFL full-season packages.
- Within the P18-49 demo, TNF is averaging 6.82M viewers, up +14% vs. last year’s full-season average (5.99M).
- Within the P25-54 demo, TNF is averaging 7.40M viewers, up +13% vs. last year’s full-season average (6.58M).
- Within the P18-34 demo, TNF is averaging 2.89M viewers, up +11% vs. last year’s full-season average (2.61M).
- Season-to-date, TNF on Prime’s median age is 48.5, which is almost eight years younger than audiences watching the NFL on linear networks (56.1).
- TNF on Prime’s postgame show, TNF Nightcap, is averaging 2.78M viewers this season, up +36% over last year’s full-season average (2.04M), up +50% over the 2023 full-season average (1.85M), and +66% over the 2022 full-season average (1.68M).
- TNF Nightcap’s median age is 45.7, the youngest among all NFL shoulder programming.
- TNF Tonight, TNF on Prime’s pregame show that kicks off each week at 7:00PM ET, is now averaging 1.83M viewers this season, up +20% over last year’s full-season average (1.53M), up +31% over the 2023 full-season average (1.39M), and +63% over the 2022 full-season average (1.12M).
