NFL averages 18.3 million viewers through Week 9, its second-best midseason mark since 1988, and the Chiefs are in three of the six most-watched games

The NFL reached the halfway point of the 2026 season with one of the biggest TV audiences it has ever had. Games are averaging 18.3 million viewers through Week 9, the league said Thursday, up 2 percent from last season and the second-highest average for this point of a season in records that go back to 1988.

NFL games also make up the 49 most-watched programs on American television since the season began in September. The only nine-week stretch that drew more was 2010, and this season was ahead of that pace until a softer Week 9.

🚨2026 NFL Viewership🚨

🏈18.3 million avg. viewers per game — 2nd-highest avg. through Week 9 on record

🏈NFL games rank as the top 49 shows on TV since start of the 2026 @NFL season

🏈Top 10 Most-Watched Games of the Season

— NFL Media (@NFLMedia) November 12, 2026

The Chiefs own the top of the list

Kansas City is in three of the season’s six most-watched games, including the top two. Chiefs-Raiders in Week 4 drew 28.5 million on CBS, and Chiefs-Broncos in Week 8 drew 28.2 million on the same network. Chiefs-Seahawks on Sunday night in Week 7, at 26.3 million, is the most-watched prime-time game of the season so far.

Only one game on the list was played after Week 8: Packers-Patriots in Fox’s late national window last Sunday, at 25.7 million. That was still 17 percent below the comparable window a year ago, when CBS had Chiefs-Bills at 30.8 million.

Weeknights are carrying the growth

The two weeknight packages are doing most of the lifting. Monday Night Football is averaging 19.0 million viewers, up 24 percent, the best for the series at this point of a season since 1999. That includes Bills-Vikings last Monday at 21.7 million, the most-watched Week 9 Monday game since Colts-Patriots in 2005.

Thursday Night Football on Prime Video is averaging 17.2 million, up 13 percent from last year’s midseason mark and its largest audience on record through nine weeks, above the 16.5 million the Thursday package drew on broadcast and cable in 2015. Even last week’s Jaguars-Ravens game, at 13.96 million the least-watched Thursday game of the season, was up 13 percent from the same week a year ago. The package also set a Week 6 record with Seahawks-Broncos.

Sunday night had its own strong week: Buccaneers-Bears drew 21.5 million, up 25 percent and the most-watched Week 9 Sunday night game since 2019.

Why Week 9 slipped

Week 9 as a whole averaged 17.2 million viewers per window, down 7 percent from a year ago, which is what dropped the season average just under the 2010 mark. Both Fox doubleheader windows fell from last year’s bigger CBS matchups, and the early window was down 35 percent. The slate also included the Bengals-Falcons international game on Sunday morning, which averaged 6.2 million and had no equivalent window last year.

The numbers come with caveats the league does not stress. This is only the second season of Nielsen’s Big Data plus panel method, which adds smart-TV and set-top box data to its traditional sample, and out-of-home viewing has only been fully counted since 2025, so comparisons with 2010 or 1988 are not like for like.

What comes next

The next number is Thursday’s game. Washington beat the first-place Giants 24-21 at MetLife Stadium on Stefon Diggs’ 32-yard touchdown with 57 seconds left and Rasul Douglas’ interception with 25 seconds left. Prime Video’s audience figure for it is expected next week.

RASUL DOUGLAS CALLS GAME.

— NFL (@NFL) November 12, 2026

Sunday brings Patriots-Lions in Munich in the morning window in the United States, and both teams are now in Germany. After that come the Mexico City game between the 49ers and Vikings on Nov. 22, Thanksgiving, a new Thanksgiving Eve game on Netflix and Christmas, the stretch that usually produces the season’s biggest audiences.