As the 2023 NFL season approaches its climax, with all 272 regular-season games played and the 2023-24 playoffs set for the month-long lead-up to Super Bowl LVIII, America’s love of football is only growing stronger.
New data from Nielsen reveals that NFL league games padded out US TV viewership last year — accounting for a whopping 93 of the top 100 most-watched broadcasts, up from 82 the previous year, totaling 2.2 billion viewers. Along with college football, which accrued some 53.8m viewers over 3 games in the ranking, 2023 marks the first time that just a single sport has registered in the top 100, with not even one basketball or baseball broadcast making the cut.
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While political and cultural mainstays like the State of the Union Address (21st place) and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (25th) bring in big TV viewer numbers year-on-year, NFL games have been doing the hard yards to keep linear television relevant. Even as cable TV subscriptions are canceled at an alarming rate, the NFL notched 8-year viewership highs in the recent season, averaging 17.5m viewers per game across TV and digital, with Monday Night Football alone up 24% from last year.
Despite the shift from cable to digital observed across most US sports, the NFL’s gargantuan TV deals with streamers like Amazon, as well as its success in winning fans overseas and in new demographics, leaves the league’s future looking healthier than ever.
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