It was the least attended NFL season since 1938 (1.1 million) when the league had ten teams. Also, with a limited number of spectators, Front Office Sports reports attendance to NFL games barely surpassed 1 million, compared to over 17 million in 2019. With the pandemic the 2020 NFL season was very different from the previous 100 seasons. The NFL announced 11.8 million viewers had watched some part of the game streaming on Amazon and Twitch. The streaming video component reported an average minute audience of 4.8 million viewers and increased to 5.9 million when the two broadcast stations are included.

The game was also available on local over-the-air stations KNTV (NBC station) in San Francisco and KSAZ (Fox station) in Phoenix as well as Verizon. Thursday Night Football games simulcast on Fox and the NFL Network as well as various streaming platforms (i.e., Amazon Prime Video), averaged 14.1 million viewers for the season, a decline of 6% from 2019.ĭuring Week 16 of the season (Saturday, December 26th), Amazon Prime Video and Twitch streamed a live NFL contest between Arizona and San Francisco. In 2020 the CBS games on Sunday afternoon averaged 16.5 million viewers, a year-over-year decline of 4% and the lowest rated season since 2017. Nonetheless, the audience for NFL games dropped on Fox by 6% when compared to 2019. It marks the twelfth straight year the late afternoon national game was the top-rated overall program on television. The late afternoon games branded as “America’s Game of the Week” averaged 23.2 million viewers in 2020. That game averaged 14.7 million viewers.įor the season, Fox was once again the top-rated network on Sunday afternoon with an average audience of 18.1 million viewers. The top-rated game airing exclusively on ESPN was the following week featuring the last two NFL MVPs, quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City and Lamar Jackson of Baltimore. The game was also part of ESPN’s “Megacast” which included ABC, ESPN 2 and ESPN Deportes. It was the first home game for the newly relocated Las Vegas Franchise (from Oakland). The top-rated game was on Week 2 New Orleans versus Las Vegas and averaged 15.6 million viewers. A contributing reason for the ratings surge was simulcasting several games on ABC. Launched in 1970, the ratings for Monday Night Football ended strong with the final six games reporting an increase in viewers when compared to the similar week in 2019.

The average audience of Monday Night Football on ESPN during the season was 11.8 million viewers, a slight drop-off from last season’s average audience of 12.1 million viewers. The highest rated Sunday night game on NBC was Week 11 between Super Bowl champs Kansas City and division rival Las Vegas. NBC announced when digital viewing is included the total audience for Sunday Night games in 2020 grew to 17.4 million. In addition, it was the least watched Sunday Night Football audience since 2008. Nonetheless, the audience declined from 20.5 million in 2019. With an average audience of 16.8 million viewers, NBC’s Sunday Night Football ended their 15 th season as the top-rated prime time program on television for a record tenth consecutive season. The game featured two forty-something quarterbacks, the debut of six-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady with Tampa Bay and Drew Brees of New Orleans. The only other regular season game to average over 25 million viewers was the late (national) afternoon game on Fox during the first week.

Nfl veeer rating week 4 2017