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Sunday morning NFL games played in Europe are seeing another viewership spike this season—now with NFL Network under ESPN ownership.
NFL Network’s four international games in October averaged 7.1 million viewers, which is up 18% from the record 6.2 million average audience for the channel’s six European game broadcasts during the 2025 season.
Most recently, the NFL’s debut Paris game (a 16–10 victory for the Steelers over the Saints) drew 7.7 million viewers, marking NFL Network’s third most-watched international game on record. This season’s three London games (Colts-Commanders, Eagles-Jaguars, and Texas-Jaguars) averaged 6.9 million viewers, which was up 19% over the three London games last season.
NFL Network will air one more Sunday morning international game this season, Bengals-Falcons in Madrid on Nov. 8. Fox will broadcast the final European game of the season, Patriots-Lions in Munich on Nov. 15.
Netflix averaged 18.5 million viewers in the U.S. for the NFL’s debut game in Australia, 49ers-Rams from Melbourne in Week 1. CBS averaged 24.9 million viewers for Ravens-Cowboys in the late Sunday afternoon window in Week 3, marking it the most-watched NFL international game on record. NBC will carry the final international game of the 2026 season, a Sunday Night Football matchup between the Vikings and 49ers in Mexico City on Nov. 22.
Pregame Show Impact
The record viewership pace for Sunday morning international NFL game broadcasts this season naturally means some fans will watch the live action over traditional Sunday pregame show audiences.
The NFL Today on CBS averaged 3.63 million viewers from weeks 1–3, when there were no Sunday morning games, and 2.95 million viewers from weeks 4–7 when there were games being played in Europe. The week 4 and 5 broadcasts were up in viewership over the same weeks last season, while the week 6 and 7 ratings were down. There were also Sunday morning international games in weeks 4–7 during the 2025 season. Overall, The NFL Today is averaging 3.22 million viewers, up 9% over the first seven weeks last year.
Fox NFL Sunday averaged 4.79 million viewers from weeks 1–3 and 4.12 million viewers from weeks 4–5, according to Awful Announcing. Viewership figures for weeks 6–7 were not immediately available.
Both CBS and Fox’s flagship pregame shows air from noon to 1 p.m. ET, overlapping with the tail end of Sunday morning international games. Eagles-Jaguars in Week 5 extended past 1 p.m., and Texans-Jaguars in Week 6 ended at 12:53 p.m.
Meanwhile, ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown, which runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., averaged 1.43 million viewers during weeks 1–3 and just over 737,000 viewers in weeks 4–7. Overall, Sunday NFL Countdown is averaging 1.03 million viewers per broadcast, up 2% vs. 2025.
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