NFL Hall of Fame Game Draws Largest Audience in Four Years

The NFL preseason kicked off with a robust viewership for the Chargers-Lions Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, averaging a 3.3 rating and 6.21 million viewers on NBC, according to Programming Insider. 

This marks the highest audience for the annual preseason opener since the 2021 Steelers-Cowboys game on FOX (7.31M). Note that these figures exclude NBC’s Adobe Analytics-measured streaming audience, which is typically added to Nielsen data.

Viewership surged 19% and ratings rose 14% compared to last year’s Bears-Texans game on ESPN and ABC (2.9 rating, 5.2M viewers), which competed with the Olympics. Compared to the last Hall of Fame Game on NBC (Jets-Browns, 2023), ratings held steady, but viewership grew 4% from 5.98 million.

Despite its strong performance for a preseason event, the game reflects the broader decline in TV viewership, down from nearly 11 million a decade ago and a peak of almost 15 million in 1999, when the Cleveland Browns’ return boosted numbers.

The game’s 6.21 million viewers rivaled the audience for October’s Mets-Dodgers NLCS Game 6 on FS1 (6.27M) and May’s Nuggets-Thunder NBA Game 7 on ABC (6.34M). It outperformed 81% of last October’s MLB postseason games (35 of 43) and 77% of this spring’s NBA playoff games (64 of 83), as well as every Stanley Cup Playoff game.