After weeks of Tiger King, season three of Ozark and The Office reruns on Netflix, the NFL Draft was a landing pad for millions of sports-hungry viewers.
The 2020 NFL Draft drew 15.6 million viewers on Thursday night, besting the previous record of 12.4 million. And after all those hours of commercial-free streaming viewers were apparently willing to engage with the ads over the weekend as well.
TV ad measurement company EDO – whose president and CEO, Kevin Krim, chatted with FOS earlier this month – found the NFL Draft audience 37% more likely to search for brands and products advertised than last year’s draft.
EDO data suggested that these were the top ads during Thursday’s first round:
- Nintendo Switch (Two different ads aired on ESPN)
- Apple TV+’s Beastie Boys Story on ABC
- Apple TV+’s Defending Jacob on ESPN
- Netflix’s Extraction on ESPN
- Defending Jacob on ABC
- State Farm (Two different ads aired on ESPN)
- Sleep Number on ESPN
- Showtime’s Billions on ESPN
A quick glimpse at the top 10 ads from the first round broadcasts on ABC and ESPN show there was a keen interest from viewers for new streaming content and video games – two of the most popular activities while people are quarantining at home.
On average, EDO found a single ad airing during the first round was equivalent to 2.0 ads on primetime TV, which makes sense because the 15.3 million people made it the most-watched TV program since March 13.
![Feb 15, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; [Imagn Images direct customers only] Team United States forward Matthew Tkachuk (19) and Team Canada forward brandon Hagel (38) fight in the first period during a 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey game at the Bell Centre.](https://frontofficesports.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/USATSI_25429594_168416385_lowres-e1739674194139.jpg?quality=100&w=1024)
