NFL games dominated the American sports television landscape like never before in 2023.
The 56 most-watched sporting events of the year were all NFL games, according to SportsMediaWatch.com. The NFL has long been the most popular programming on American television, but never had it dominated other sports like that.
The most-watched game was, of course, the Super Bowl, with 112.17 million viewers. The AFC and NFC Championship Games were next, followed by a divisional playoff game between the Cowboys and 49ers, and then the Cowboys’ annual Thanksgiving game. The most-watched Sunday regular-season game was Cowboys-Dolphins in Week 16.
After the 56 NFL games at the top of the list, the most-watched sporting event of 2023 was the Ohio State-Michigan game, which drew 19.07 million viewers. The Alabama-Georgia SEC Championship Game was next, and in third place for non-NFL sporting events was the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, a 65-7 Georgia blowout win that drew 17.22 million viewers. 2023 was an unusual year on the college football schedule in that there were no College Football Playoff semifinal games: This season’s semifinals were played on January 1, 2024, while last season’s semifinals were played on December 31, 2022.
Much further down the list of most-watched sporting events in 2023 are events including the NCAA men’s basketball final, the Kentucky Derby, NBA Finals, the Masters and the World Series. But even the biggest events in other sports can’t compare to what a regular-season NFL game can draw, and nothing else on television comes close to the biggest NFL games. The NFL is on a whole other level.
