In Week 1 of the 2024 season, the National Football League broke all of its own opening week ratings records, averaging 21.0 million viewers per game.
Both the league and TV ratings agency Nielsen reported on Wednesday morning that average viewing figures per game on TV and digital platforms increased by 12 percent compared to last year.
A total of 123 million people watched at least part of a match, the highest number for an opening week since 2019.
“A great start with the ratings. It was great to be back and there was a lot to be excited about,” said Hans Schroeder, executive vice president of NFL Media.
NBC’s season opener, in which the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Baltimore Ravens 27-20 at home, was watched by an average of 29.2 million people on television and digital, making it the most-watched game of the week.
The NFL game Taylor Swift attended was the most-watched game of Week 1 in 2024
Tom Brady’s debut as NFL commentator was also highly rated – it drew more than 23 million viewers
That game, which featured Taylor Swift at Arrowhead Stadium, was the second-biggest regular-season game for NBC since 2006, the year the company took over the “Sunday Night Football” package.
NBC would also score a ratings win with its “Sunday Night Football” broadcast of the Detroit Lions vs. Los Angeles Rams game — which Detroit won 26-20 in overtime. That game drew an average of 22.7 million viewers, up 3 percent from the year before.
FOX Sports had a big win when the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Cleveland Browns drew an average of 23.93 million viewers. The game drew national attention because it was Tom Brady’s first game as the network’s No. 1 color commentator.
Across all six games FOX aired in its doubleheader (four early games, two late games), viewership averaged 18.64 million, the network’s best start since 2020.
This marked the first time since 2020 that Fox had the Sunday afternoon doubleheader in Week 1 alone. Both CBS and Fox have aired two games on opening Sunday each for the past three seasons.
CBS averaged 17.79 million viewers for its six games, its most-watched Week 1 game since it reacquired the NFL rights in 1998.
Most CBS affiliates had games in the 1:00 p.m. EDT time slot, but New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Pittsburgh got Jim Harbaugh’s first game as coach of the Los Angeles Chargers against the Las Vegas Raiders at 4:05 p.m. EDT.
New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Pittsburgh were unable to air games in CBS’s early transfer window because it is a league rule that no game will be aired outside of the local team’s game.
The NFL averaged 21.0 million viewers per game, a new opening week record
Philadelphia’s 34-29 win over Green Bay in the NFL’s first Friday night game in Week 1 in 54 years averaged 14.0 million viewers on Peacock and NBC affiliates in Philadelphia, Green Bay and Milwaukee.
It was the second-most-watched live event in Peacock’s four-year history, behind last season’s AFC wild card game between Kansas City and Miami.
“I think the numbers even exceeded our expectations. Brazil was great and the game was exciting,” Schroeder said. “On a new night and window, I think this was a phenomenal start for us.”
“Monday Night Football” on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+ averaged 20.4 million viewers for San Francisco’s 32-19 win over the New York Jets, despite the fact that most DirecTV customers were unable to receive the program due to a dispute with Disney over the broadcast (the only way they could watch it was if their ABC affiliate wasn’t owned by Disney, which wasn’t the case for DirecTV customers in New York and San Francisco).
The average was lower than the 22.7 million for last year’s season opener between the Jets and Buffalo.