Throughout the fall and into winter, football was the big draw. The NFL and college football both saw TV ratings rise during their respective regular seasons. College football’s viewership increased 2% during the regular season while comparing Nielsen Big Data + Panel data to last year. That includes 11 games with more than 10 million […]
Throughout the fall and into winter, football was the big draw. The NFL and college football both saw TV ratings rise during their respective regular seasons.
College football’s viewership increased 2% during the regular season while comparing Nielsen Big Data + Panel data to last year. That includes 11 games with more than 10 million viewers, led by the regular-season finale between Michigan and Ohio State. The Buckeyes’ victory averaged 18.4 million viewers on FOX in Week 14.
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For comparison, the NFL averaged 18.7 million viewers during its regular season, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel data and Adobe Analytics where applicable. That marks a 10% increase from 2024, the league said.
— NFL Media (@NFLMedia) January 7, 2026
2025 NFL Regular Season Viewership
18.7 million avg. viewers per game — 2nd highest season avg. on record
But solely looking at Big Data + Panel from Nielsen, which gives a direct apples-to-apples comparison to college football figures compiled by On3, that number becomes 18.4 million viewers on average. It’s also a 4% year-over-year increase based on Big Data + Panel, Nielsen said.
NFL, college football drawing huge TV ratings
The NFL remains king when it comes to TV ratings. Regular-season games accounted for 89 of the top 100 shows on TV since the 2025 season began. The biggest matchup of the season came on Thanksgiving when the Dallas Cowboys’ victory over the Kansas City Chiefs brought in 57.3 million viewers on CBS. That shattered the previous mark for most-watched NFL regular-season game on record.
But while the NFL draws the biggest TV ratings in sports, college football is also seeing its own success. During the 2025 regular season, a record number of games topped the 10 million-viewer mark, with ABC emerging as the big winner. The network aired 21 of the 2025 most-watched games of the year, led by the Lone Star Showdown between Texas and Texas A&M. The Longhorns’ win averaged 13.0 million viewers in Week 14.
FOX was also a big winner, bringing in the two most-watched games of the regular season. The rivalry game between Ohio State and Michigan led the charge at 18.4 million – on par with the NFL’s average via Nielsen Big Data + Panel – and the Buckeyes’ Week 1 win over Texas averaged 16.6 million viewers.
Continuing into the postseason, college football’s viewership continued to surge. Non-College Football Playoff bowl viewership increased by 13% on ESPN networks, the network announced. ESPN airs 33 of the 36 bowl games on its family of networks, and ABC had the four most-watched non-CFP postseason matchups.
Even looking at the College Football Playoff, TV ratings are rising. The Rose Bowl is an example, drawing 23.9 million viewers on New Year’s Day. In fact, both the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl – which averaged 19.0 million viewers – topped the average NFL game.
How NFL impacted CFP viewership
The Rose Bowl led a strong CFP quarterfinal slate, which averaged 19.3 million viewers across its four games. That marks a 14% year-over-year increase. As a whole, CFP viewership is up 3% year-over-year through the first two rounds. Data for the CFP semifinals is expected early next week.
But the College Football Playoff went head-to-head against the NFL on Dec. 20. According to the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, the NFL cannot play games on Friday nights or Saturdays through the second Saturday in December.
While ESPN scored big TV ratings wins in the CFP first round, the last two games on Dec. 20 – which aired on TNT as part of a sublicense deal with ESPN – took a hit while going against two NFL divisional games on FOX. The Philadelphia Eagles’ win over the Washington Commanders averaged 15.5 million viewers and the Chicago Bears’ victory over the Green Bay Packers averaged 21.3 million.
On TNT, Ole Miss’ blowout win against Tulane averaged 6.2 million viewers in the late-afternoon window Oregon’s win over James Madison averaged 4.4 million viewers in primetime. Those numbers are part of the conversation about the CFP schedule and going against the NFL, especially considering the sublicense agreement.
Category: General Sports
