Overview
- The NFL Kickoff Game averaged 25.1 million viewers on Sept. 10, the smallest season‑opening audience since 2022 and down roughly 11–12% from last year’s opener as reported by multiple outlets.
- Netflix’s first regular‑season Australia game drew a sizable streaming crowd, averaging 18.5 million U.S. viewers and 21.7 million globally, underscoring growing international reach for the league.
- NBC reported its largest 18–49 Kickoff audience since 2021 at about 10.0 million, reflecting stronger advertiser‑valued demos despite the overall numeric decline.
- Changes in measurement practice — Nielsen’s shift to a hybrid panel plus device/first‑party approach and NBC’s end to separate Nielsen+Adobe reporting — mean historical comparisons are not clean apples‑to‑apples.
- Broadly, Week 1 produced mixed but robust results across rights holders with Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football posting strong audiences, leaving the NFL dominant in live sports even as the league evaluates scheduling and rights strategy.