Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season definitely delivered. Fans waited about seven months for the NFL to return, and they weren't disappointed.

And the fans definitely tuned in. The league announced on Thursday that this was the most-watched Week 1 in NFL history with an average 22.3 million viewers per game. That's up 5% from last year's viewership amount, and a whopping 19% increase from 2023. It is the third-straight year in which four games have averaged over 20 million viewers in Week 1. NFL fans were pumped for some of these matchups.

The Thursday Night Football showdown between the reigning Super Bowl champion Eagles vs. the Cowboys (also highlighting an intense rivalry between the two teams) saw a historic 28.3 million average viewership, which is the second-most watched kickoff game in history. This game definitely kicked the NFL season off to a fiery start as Philadelphia came back to win 24-20 in a shockingly close matchup.

The second most-watched game with 24.7 million average viewers last week was unsurprisingly the electric Sunday Night Football showdown between the Ravens and the Bills. Buffalo heroically came back in the fourth quarter to clinch a 41-40 victory. This game is already being called the contest of the season.

Fans then tuned in for Micah Parsons's Packers debut on Sunday afternoon when Green Bay faced the Lions. There was an average of 24 million viewers for this NFC North showdown.

The last primetime game of the week, Monday Night Football, brought in an average of 22.1 million viewers as fans watched another NFC North battle between the Vikings and the Bears.

It'll be exciting to see how viewership continues across the NFL season. It's gearing up to be a good year.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFL's Viewership Numbers Skyrocketed in Historic Week 1.

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