The 2025 Monday Night Football regular season ranked as ESPN’s second-most-watched MNF season in the company’s 20-year history of televising the iconic NFL franchise, highlighting a year which included a record for most ESPN MNF games over 20 million viewers, viewership gains across every major demographic and further expansion of innovative alternate telecasts. Following the conclusion of the MNF slate, ESPN capped the season with the NFL’s most-watched Week 18 game, as Seahawks-49ers achieved over 27.5 million viewers.
Across the 21 games, and not including the two games in Week 18, MNF averaged 15.8 million viewers per game, besting every season dating back to 2006, except 2023, and was up 9% over 2024. Adding in the two Week 18 games, ESPN’s entire 23-game schedule averaged 16.5 million viewers per game, up 10% vs. 2024’s 23-game regular season schedule.
The 2025 season extended MNF’s strong momentum, with ESPN now having aired its eight most-watched MNF games over the past four seasons (2022–2025). That surge coincides with the Buck–Aikman era, as the three most recent seasons (2023–2025) now rank as ESPN’s three most-watched MNF seasons since 2006, with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman in the booth alongside Lisa Salters and, most recently, Laura Rutledge.
Amongst the demos in the 2025 season, MNF posted a 5% increase in Persons 18-49 and a 15% jump among females compared to 2024. Double-digit increases were seen in Persons 2–17 (up 20%) and Persons 18–24 (up 17%).