NFL regular season viewership fell 2.2 percent

The NFL is still the king of live television. Last year, the king picked up a small dent in his crown.

Via Eric Fisher of FrontOfficeSports.com, regular season ratings decreased by 2.2 percent for the 2024 season.

Average viewership across all networks was 17.5 million per game. In 2023, the number was 17.9 million. That was a seven percent increase over 2022.

Despite the decline, that’s still far more than any other sport or series or event can collect on a regular basis, if ever.

In terms of different broadcast partners, Amazon posted an 11 percent increase for 2024. Fox was down three percent. NBC reported a one percent increase.

ESPN fell 14 percent, largely because most, if not all, of the 2023 games were simulcast by ABC. (During the 2024 season, ESPN also increased the number of televised games.)

CBS did not release the full season numbers. Which means that their number for the whole season could not be boasted.

Then there’s Netflix, which averaged 24.2 million for a pair of Christmas games. While the audience is huge for streaming, the numbers would certainly be higher if the games were televised on a three-letter network.