NFL Week 2 games averaged 20.4 million viewers, the most-watched second week on record dating to 1998 and a sharp rebound from a soft opening weekend. The figure is up 6% from last year’s Week 2 and lifted the league after Week 1 averaged 19.5 million, a 13% year-over-year drop.
Through two weeks, the NFL is averaging 19.9 million viewers per game — still down about 4% from 2025’s 20.7 million pace, but the third-best two-week start on record, behind only 2025 and 2015.
Kansas City ranks just behind, with its overtime win over Indianapolis on Sunday Night Football averaging 24.3 million — the best Week 2 SNF audience since 2015 — and its Week 1 Monday Night Football game against Denver placing among the season’s top five.
Four of the five largest audiences so far have featured one of those two teams. Since the season began, NFL games have occupied the top 11 broadcasts on U.S. television across every genre and 13 of the top 15.Individual windows reinforced the rebound. CBS posted its most-watched Week 2 singleheader on record at 19.3 million, led by Steelers-Patriots and its best September NFL singleheader since 1989. \
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| Graphic Courtesy of RoadMN |
ESPN’s Giants-Rams Monday Night Football game averaged 19.4 million, the strongest Week 2 MNF audience since 1999. Amazon’s Thursday Night Football opener between Detroit and Buffalo drew 18.6 million, the most-watched TNF opener since 2015.
Nielsen-measured streaming for the season so far is already a record at 1.6 million. The schedule helped explain both weeks. Week 1 split Sunday’s national windows between Fox and CBS; Week 2 gave Fox the late national window to itself with Dallas in most markets. The Cowboys’ next game, against the Ravens in Brazil, headlines CBS’s late-afternoon national window in Week 3, extending Dallas’s early grip on the season’s biggest audiences.