In Week 1 of the 2024 season, the National Football League has already broken its own opening week viewership records – with an average of 21.0million viewers per game.

Both the league and television ratings company Nielsen said on Wednesday morning that the per-game average on TV and on digital platforms was a 12-percent increase over last year.

In total, 123million people saw at least part of a game – the highest total for an opening week since 2019.

‘A great start with the viewership. It was great to be back and a lot to be excited about,’ said Hans Schroeder, the executive vice president of NFL Media.

NBC’s season-opening broadcast, with the Kansas City Chiefs defeating the Baltimore Ravens 27-20 at home averaged 29.2million on television and digital – making it the best watched game of the week.

The NFL game attended by Taylor Swift was the most watched game of Week 1 in 2024

Tom Brady’s debut as an NFL broadcaster was also highly rated – drawing over 23m viewers

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That game, with Taylor Swift in attendance at Arrowhead Stadium, was the second-largest regular season game for NBC since 2006 – the year the company acquired the package for ‘Sunday Night Football’.

NBC would also score a ratings win with their ‘Sunday Night Football’ broadcast of the game between the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams – which Detroit won 26-20 in overtime. That game averaged 22.7million, up three-percent from the year prior.

FOX Sports scored a big win when the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Cleveland Browns averaged 23.93million. That game attracted national attention for being Tom Brady’s first game as the network’s No. 1 color commentator.

Across all six games that FOX broadcast in their doubleheader (four early games, two late games), they averaged 18.64m – marking the best start for the network since 2020.

This was the first time since 2020 that Fox solely had the Sunday afternoon doubleheader in Week 1. Both CBS and Fox carried two games apiece on the opening Sunday the past three seasons.

CBS averaged 17.79 million for its six games, its most watched Week 1 singleheader since it reacquired NFL rights in 1998.

Most of CBS’ affiliates had games in the 1 p.m. EDT window, but New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Pittsburgh got Jim Harbaugh’s first game as coach of the Los Angeles Chargers against the Las Vegas Raiders at 4:05 p.m. EDT.

New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Pittsburgh could not air games in CBS’ early window because it is a league rule that no game is shown opposite the game of the local team.

The NFL brought in an average of 21.0million viewers per game, a new opening week record

Philadelphia’s 34-29 victory over Green Bay in the NFL’s first Friday night Week 1 game in 54 years averaged 14.0 million on Peacock and NBC affiliates in Philadelphia, Green Bay and Milwaukee.

It was the second-most watched live event in Peacock’s four-year history, behind last season’s AFC wild card round game between Kansas City and Miami.

‘I think the numbers even exceeded our expectations. Brazil was great and the game was an exciting one,’ Schroeder said. ‘On a new night and window, I think that was a phenomenal start for us.’

‘Monday Night Football’ on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+ averaged 20.4 million for San Francisco’s 32-19 win over the New York Jets despite most DirecTV customers not being able to receive it due to its carriage dispute with Disney (the only way they could watch it is if their ABC affiliate was not owned by Disney, which was not the case for DirecTV customers in New York and San Francisco).

The average was down from the 22.7 million for last year’s opener between the Jets and Buffalo.