Dive Into The NFL Viewership Stats To Get Your Business Game-Day Ready

Football season is more than a major moment for fans. It gives sports bars and restaurants opportunities to bring people together, create memorable game-day experiences and build repeat business throughout the season.

The latest NFL viewership numbers show just how large that opportunity can be. The 2025 season delivered record audiences across Sunday afternoon, prime time, holiday and playoff games, setting the stage for another highly anticipated season in 2026.

Take a closer look at the numbers, then explore how DIRECTV FOR BUSINESS® can help make your establishment a destination for football fans.

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The NFL Continues to Dominate U.S. Television

Live sports led U.S. television in 2025, with the NFL accounting for an overwhelming share of the year’s biggest audiences. NFL games represented 84 of the 100 most-watched U.S. television programs of 2025, a 16.6% increase from the previous year.

The league also recorded its second-best regular-season audience on record, averaging 18.7 million viewers per game. That was up 10% from 2024 and 7% from 2023.

For businesses, those numbers demonstrate the consistent power of football to bring fans together—not only for the season’s biggest events, but week after week.

NFL Viewership by the Numbers

Football audiences showed strength across virtually every major broadcast window in 2025.

Thursday Night Football: Prime Video averaged 15.3 million viewers across its 15-game schedule, a 16% increase from 2024 and the package’s third consecutive season of double-digit year-over-year growth.
NFL on CBS: CBS averaged 21.25 million viewers, up 11% from the prior season and the network’s best NFL regular-season average on record.
NFL on FOX: FOX regular-season games averaged 19.63 million viewers, up 6% year over year and the network’s strongest performance since 2015. Its late-afternoon Sunday games averaged 25.28 million viewers.
Sunday Night Football: NBC averaged 23.5 million viewers, the program’s best season on record. Eight regular-season games drew more than 25 million viewers, and Sunday Night Football ranked as prime time’s No. 1 show across major metrics and demographics during the 2025-26 television season.
Monday Night Football: ESPN recorded its second-most-watched Monday Night Football season in its 20-year history with the package. The season included a record number of ESPN Monday night games averaging more than 20 million viewers, along with a 5% increase among adults ages 18-49 and a 15% increase among female viewers.

Together, these audiences give businesses opportunities to build game-day promotions across multiple nights of the week—not just Sunday afternoons.

Holiday Football Creates Marquee Game-Day Moments

Holiday games continue to give fans even more reasons to gather.

Thanksgiving Day

The 2025 Thanksgiving schedule averaged 44.7 million viewers across three games—the highest average on record. It marked the fourth consecutive year that the NFL established a Thanksgiving Day viewership record.

Christmas Day

The Lions-Vikings matchup led the NFL’s Christmas Day audience with 27.5 million viewers across Netflix and local-market viewing. Prime Video also set a Thursday Night Football record when Chiefs-Broncos averaged 21 million viewers and reached a record TNF peak audience of 22.9 million.

With the 2026 NFL schedule featuring games on Thanksgiving Eve, Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, businesses have even more opportunities to create special menus, watch parties and promotions around holiday football.

NFL Playoffs Deliver Must-Watch Audiences

The postseason gives businesses another opportunity to keep football momentum going after the regular season.

During the 2025-26 playoffs, Wild Card Weekend audience growth outpaced regular-season growth, while Divisional Playoff games delivered historic highs for several networks. A CBS Saturday playoff broadcast peaked at more than 51 million viewers, and ESPN recorded the most-watched event in company history with its Texans-Patriots matchup.

Super Bowl LX averaged 125.6 million viewers on NBC and peaked at 137.8 million, the highest peak audience in U.S. television history. Telemundo averaged 3.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched Super Bowl in U.S. Spanish-language television history, while the halftime performance averaged 128.2 million viewers.

International NFL Games Are Growing Too

Fan interest extends beyond games played in the United States. The NFL’s six international games on NFL Network in 2025 averaged 6.2 million viewers, the network’s most-watched international-game season on record and a 32% increase from the previous year.

The 2026 international schedule is even larger, with nine regular-season games across four continents and seven countries. For bars and restaurants, these matchups can create distinctive viewing occasions throughout the season, including morning games and other special kickoff windows.

Explore the 2026 NFL schedule to plan for international games and other major matchups.

Turn NFL Viewership Into a Game-Day Opportunity

Strong audiences are only part of the equation. The right preparation can help your business turn interest in football into an experience customers want to revisit.

Plan around high-interest games: Use weekly schedules to prepare staffing, seating and promotions for prime-time, holiday, rivalry and playoff matchups.
Promote games in advance: Let fans know what you’ll be showing through social posts, email, your website and in-establishment signage.
Create reasons to stay: Game-day food and drink specials, comfortable seating and a lively atmosphere can help turn each matchup into an occasion.
Make every screen count: Plan your TV layout so guests can follow local teams, nationally televised games and out-of-market Sunday afternoon action.
Build repeat habits: Promote upcoming matchups before customers leave so they have a reason to return the following week.

Bring More Football to Your Business With DIRECTV FOR BUSINESS

DIRECTV FOR BUSINESS helps bars and restaurants deliver the football programming fans want throughout the season.

NFL Sunday Ticket: Show every live out-of-market Sunday afternoon regular-season game across all 18 weeks on channels 9552-9567.
NFL RedZone from NFL Network: Bring fans seven straight hours of live Sunday afternoon coverage featuring every touchdown from every game on channel 9551. NFL RedZone is available for $109 for the entire 2026 regular season.
Thursday Night Football on Prime Video: Show 17 games beginning in Week 2—including Black Friday, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and a Wild Card Playoff game—on channel 9550.
Netflix Gameday: Add five NFL games to your lineup on channels 9546-9547, plus NFL Honors in February 2027.
National and local coverage: Keep fans connected to games on CBS, FOX, NBC, ESPN, ABC and NFL Network, based on your programming package and local availability.

Programming availability varies by package and applicable broadcast rights. Blackout restrictions and other conditions may apply. NFL Sunday Ticket excludes in-market CBS and FOX games, NFL Network games, nationally televised games, select digital-only games and international games. NFL RedZone requires Commercial Basic Plus or higher. Additional subscriptions may be required.

Promote Your Business With DIRECTV MVP

The DIRECTV MVP Marketing Program gives qualifying DIRECTV FOR BUSINESS customers tools to help promote their establishments throughout football season.

Game-Day Marketing Materials

Visit DIRECTVMVP.com to explore available football-themed materials, including in-establishment items, vinyl banners and digital assets. NFL web banners can also help you tell customers where they can watch throughout the season.

Premium Sports Schedules

Use customizable premium sports schedules to find upcoming NFL games and DIRECTV channel information, helping your staff prepare for each week’s matchups.

DIRECTV Sports Bar Finder

DIRECTV Sports Bar Finder helps fans discover bars and restaurants showing the games they want to watch. Keep your business profile current so customers can find team affiliations, watch parties and other game-day details.

Customer must subscribe to a package with ESPN or have any premium sports package to be listed on SportsBarFinder.com.

Make Your Business a Football Headquarters

The latest viewership numbers make one thing clear: football continues to bring audiences together across the regular season, holidays and playoffs. With the right programming, planning and promotional support, your business can be ready to welcome those fans throughout the 2026 season.

Explore DIRECTV FOR BUSINESS sports packages and find the football lineup that fits your establishment.

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