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The NFL and NBC Sports began the 2026 regular season in surprisingly downbeat fashion.
The network said last Wednesday’s kickoff game between the Patriots and Seahawks, won by Seattle 13–10, averaged 25.1 million viewers. That figure was down 11% from last year’s season opener, which aired on a Thursday, and was the least-watched start to an NFL season since 2022.
The audience figure surprised on multiple fronts. The NFL sought to make the most of the season start when it set the schedule in May, using the kickoff game for a highly anticipated rematch of last February’s Super Bowl LX.
NBC Sports, meanwhile, was looking for a stronger beginning to the NFL season after a 65-minute rain delay in last year’s kickoff game between the Cowboys and Eagles derailed what was tracking to be a historic audience.
Among the highly coveted group of viewers aged 18-49, though, the Patriots-Seahawks game represented the best audience since 2021 for an NFL season opener. The NFL has also achieved its first four-year run of kickoff games with more than 25 million in average viewership since 2013–16.
The Patriots’ and Seahawks’ home markets led 2026 kickoff game viewership, with Providence, Rhode Island, and Boston ranking first and second, followed by Seattle-Tacoma at No. 3. Buffalo, a consistent outperformer when it comes to sports viewership, ranked fourth.
New-Look Formats
The Patriots-Seahawks game, meanwhile, was a rare Wednesday matchup for the NFL. But midweek games could become more commonplace as the league’s international interests grow and standalone broadcast slots rise in importance. The league will have another such game in November on Netflix with its first Thanksgiving Eve game, which will involve the Rams and Packers.
The NBC Sports audience figure represented its first publicly released NFL viewership data using standard Nielsen methodologies, particularly as it relates to streaming. The network previously employed its own Total Audience Delivery (TAD) figures, which partly involve Nielsen data, but the measurement agency is cracking down on networks making comparative statements using blended viewership data. NBC Sports believes directly using Nielsen figures will now lead to higher, and potentially more accurate, audience data.
Nielsen also implemented a series of changes with the new television season, which started just before the NFL regular season, but it’s too soon to assess the full impact of those shifts on football viewership.
Last Wednesday’s game also provided the regular-season debut of new NBC Sports announcer Mike Tomlin, who delivered a generally strong beginning to his broadcasting career.
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