NFL Games Boost Broadcast Viewership By 20%

Topline

The return of the NFL regular season led to a historic boost in viewership of broadcast television in September, newly released Nielsen data shows, with NFL games dominating the top 15 broadcast telecasts and the top five most-watched cable telecasts for the month.

Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs dives for the end zone to score a 13-yard touchdown against Jakorian Bennett of the Philadelphia Eagles on Sept. 14, 2025.

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Key Facts

Broadcast viewership spiked 20% from September to October, Nielsen said, earning the largest monthly increase of any type of TV use since the data firm started tracking in 2021.

Broadcast television counted for 22.3% of all TV use in September, which put it ahead of cable viewership for the first time ever.

The record jump can be solely attributed to NFL and college football, Nielsen said, with sports viewership tripling to represent 33% of all broadcast viewing in September, up from 11% in August.

Fifteen NFL games shown on CBS, FOX and NBC were the most-watched broadcast programs of the month and they all topped August’s most-watched telecast, when 16.6 million viewers watched the Ohio State v. Texas college football game.

The top five cable telecasts for September included four Monday Night Football games on ESPN, and the first international NFL game of the season on NFL Network.

The return of football also brought Amazon Prime its most-watched Thursday Night Football game ever—the Washington Commanders-Green Bay Packers matchup generated over 3 billion minutes viewed on Sept. 11.

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Tangent

Fueled by the release of the second half of season 2, “Wednesday” on Netflix was the most-watched show of the month across any streaming platform. The show garnered more than 7 billion viewing minutes across the month, nearly doubling the viewership of the record-breaking “KPop Demon Hunters” in the second-place spot.

Surprising Fact

The start of the school year has led to a drop in streaming viewership among school-aged children between the ages of 6 and 17. Time spent watching TV was down 9% among kids and teens from July to August, and streaming use among school-aged viewers dropped 8% between those two months. From August to September, a sharp decline in YouTube viewing among kids and teens led to a 2% drop in overall streaming on the platform. YouTube remained the most-watched streaming platform, however, and represented 12.6% of all TV viewing in September.