Fans in some NFL markets still support their teams despite bad seasons, but success does spur on viewership. That’s some of the results seen from a new study of TV ratings for each NFL franchise for the 2024-25 season.
Who was the most-viewed NFL team on TV this season?
Sportico is a website that provides a huge amount of news, data, and information about the business end of the $500 billion-dollar worldwide sports industry.
Because TV rankings equal better revenue for sports leagues and teams, Sportico has just released the list of the most-watched NFL teams. This data is based on national viewership. Each NFL market was ranked by the total number of viewers on average for each game, and the markets were also ranked by size as well. Some teams in far smaller markets drew bigger ratings than bigger cities.
Detroit came in at Number One, with an average national draw of 22.65 million viewers each week. According to Nielsen, the TV ratings folks, Detroit is the 14th largest TV market in the US.
The rest of the top ten had some surprises:
- Number two was Dallas, the 4th largest market, an average of 22.47 million national viewers.
- Three was Kansas City, the 33rd biggest TV market, average audience of 22.07 million.
- Four was Green Bay, which is the 38th largest market, with an average audience of 21.1 million. Green Bay is the smallest metro area and TV market in the NFL.
- Coming in at five was Baltimore, the 29th largest TV market, with an average of 20.99 million.
Surprisingly, the rest of the top ten included the Giants at #6, in the number one TV market in the US (average viewership of 20.96 million) even though they stunk, The Bears, 49’rs, Bills, and Eagles finished off the list.
The Bottom Ten began with the Saints, then the Falcons, then at 8th worst, the Seahawks. Seattle is the 13th biggest TV market, with an average draw of 14.10 million fans per game.

Bringing up the bottom five, or lowest-watched NFL teams nationally were the Raiders, Cardinals, Jaguars, Titans, and in 32nd and last place, the Carolina Panthers. However, TV data was not available for Carolina, the Titans, who were just in front of them, averaged 5.61 million.
Interestingly, other teams in the bottom ten included Denver, and New England, who were ranked below Seattle.
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