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Thursday Night Football audience rises 13% as Sunday Night Football slips
Prime Video averaged 17.56 million viewers through Week 8. NBC’s Sunday package remained the NFL’s most watched in prime time at 22.6 million.
Thursday Night Football averaged 17.56 million viewers through Week 8, up 13% from a year earlier, while Sunday Night Football fell to 22.6 million from 24.7 million. NBC still had the NFL’s most-watched prime-time package at the eight-week mark, according to Sports Media Watch.
The Thursday average was Prime Video’s highest at this point since it took over the package in 2022. It also tied the eight-week record set in 2015, when CBS and NFL Network carried the games. For NBC, the lower year-over-year figure was still the third highest through eight weeks since it began airing Sunday Night Football in 2006. Only 2025 and 2015 were higher.
The latest games in the comparison moved in the same direction as the package averages. Carolina and Green Bay drew 16.56 million for the Week 8 Thursday game, up from 13.13 million for Minnesota and the Los Angeles Chargers in the comparable window last year. Philadelphia and Washington drew 19 million on Sunday night. The year-earlier window drew 25.5 million for Green Bay and Pittsburgh, when Aaron Rodgers faced his former team for the first time.
NBC’s advantage over Prime Video was about 5 million viewers per game through Week 8. Each year-over-year figure compares a package with its own 2025 schedule. Thursday and Sunday have different matchups and distribution, so the figures cannot show whether the same viewers changed nights. The figures describe the reported U.S. audiences for each package, with Sunday on NBC and Thursday on Prime Video.
The Thursday and Sunday packages are part of a leaguewide average of 18.4 million through Week 8, up 3%, that also covers afternoon and Monday games. TSP covered the league total separately in its Week 8 ratings report.
With more than half the regular-season weeks still to come at that point, the full-season comparison will take in another set of matchups and holiday windows. The eight-week figures give each partner a benchmark for measuring the rest of its schedule.
