NFL Ratings Records For First Week Of The Season

The Chiefs versus Ravens game had a record viewership to start the 2024-25 NFL season.Photo byAP Photo via www.wbng.com website

The rich get richer. For the first week of the NFL season, the league broke a record for the number of viewers per game. The NFL averaged 21 million viewers per game, which is the most for the first week of the season since 1988, when Nielsen began to electronically keep that type of data.

The 21 million viewers was a 12% increase from the previous season. NBC announced that the Thursday night game between the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens drew a whopping 28.9 million, and the Sunday night game between the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams drew 22.7 million.

The Chiefs versus Ravens game was the highest rating for the network in 18 years. With different networks scrambling to join forces with other streaming companies, the NFL is going to the highest bidder, getting several huge deals from different companies.