Green Bay emphatically delivered, and so did the rest of the country, for the 2025 NFL Draft.
The league and the Packers said the three-day event drew a total attendance of 600,000 to the Wisconsin locale, the NFL’s smallest market. The figure smashed preliminary expectations of 250,000, and tied Nashville, the 2019 host, for the second-largest draw ever for the event.
The total remains well below the 775,000 who came to downtown Detroit last year for the draft, but still contrasts strongly with the shade thrown at Green Bay early last week by Lions president Rod Wood.
The Packers returned fire, in a sense, saying in a social media post with the attendance total, “And they said the smallest market couldn’t do it.”
Helping boost the figures was a robust first-day draw of 205,000 on Thursday for the first round, followed by 175,000 on Friday and 220,000 more on Saturday. Green Bay’s draft figure is also nearly double its metro-area population of about 320,000.
“We were not quite correct,” Packers president Mark Murphy said, acknowledging the low preliminary projection. “I never cease to be amazed by our fans.”
The turnout further established the draft as one of the high points of the entire NFL calendar, and raises the bar for Pittsburgh, which is hosting next year and is projecting the largest visitor event in the city’s history.
TV ratings for the draft, meanwhile, also started with a bang as Round 1 averaged 13.6 million viewers, the second-highest figure for the draft opener.
Final viewership figures are expected later this week, but strong totals are expected. The drama on both the second and third days was boosted considerably by the dramatic fall of Shedeur Sanders. The Colorado quarterback was initially projected as a top-five pick but ultimately fell to the fifth round, where he was selected by the Browns. Nielsen fast national numbers indicated that Friday’s second and third rounds averaged 7.4 million viewers, up 40% from 2024 and the second-highest Day 2 rating ever.
