TV Audiences Of NFL Season Start Hold Steady

The first game of the new NFL season on NBC’s Sunday Night Football dominated primetime ratings with 22.2 million viewers, almost exactly the same size audience as the 2019 season opener on Thursday.

In 2018, the SNF opener pulled 22.12 million.

The “fast official” ratings put the audience for the New England Patriots’ 33-3 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers at 22.2 million viewers.

Streaming on NBC and NFL digital properties for the Pats-Steelers games averaged 523,000 viewers (up from 403,000 last year) for a total audience of about 22.7 million.

On Thursday night, the Green Bay Packers’ 10-3 win over the Chicago Bears averaged 22.0 million viewers

The audiences for the first NFL games in primetime are the biggest on U.S. television the United States since the Super Bowl in February.