NFL season opener hit new viewership low but ratings have caveat
NFL season opener hit new viewership low but ratings have caveat
Tom MalleyTue, September 15, 2026 at 1:16 PM UTC
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The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots kicked off the 2026 NFL season at Lumen Field last Wednesday -Credit:Getty Images
There could not have been a bigger game to open the 2026 NFL season than a rematch of Super Bowl LX between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, yet TV ratings tell a different story.
Despite the Patriots having the chance to get revenge over the Seahawks in the first game of the new campaign, the storyline failed to have the desired impact as viewership fell an eye-opening 12 percent from last year's opener between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys.
The Seahawks-Patriots game had actually been pushed back 24 hours from the traditional Thursday night slot to accommodate the NFL's first-ever regular-season game in Australia between the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams, with the time zone difference allowing both marquee games their own exclusive primetime television windows.
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The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 also ensured that the NFL could not simply move one of the games to Friday night to protect high school and college football attendance, meaning the league opened its regular season on a Wednesday for only the second time since 1948.
The result of that, however, appeared to be a drop in viewership. While the Patriots-Seahawks game in Seattle still averaged an impressive 25.1 million viewers, it actually marked a 12 percent decline from the same game 12 months ago.
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According to Awful Announcing, it was the NFL's lowest regular-season opener since 2022, though despite the drop off, it wasn't all bad news for the league.
The Seahawks defeated the Patriots 13-10 in last week's 2026 NFL season opener
Despite the overall audience decrease, viewership spiked among viewers aged 18 to 49, reaching a five-year high for that demographic for the season opener, while the NFL still eclipsed 25 million viewers with its first game for the fourth straight season.
This year's ratings, however, mark the onset of a new era with Nielsen, a global media and data analytics firm that, much to the NFL's dismay, has changed its methodology for 2026.
Previously, Nielsen relied strictly on a panel-only measurement system, but two weeks ago, it transitioned to a hybrid audience-measurement methodology that uses datasets from electronic devices as well as traditional human-monitored household panels.
NFL head of data and analytics Paul Ballew recently told reporters that the league was still trying to understand how it would impact ratings, conceding that it appeared to "look like a negative for sports".
U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that his Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas received more viewers than the Seahawks-Patriots game -Credit:Eric Lee/Reuters pool via AP
Following last Wednesday's game, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed his Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas drew bigger overall numbers than the Seahawks-Patriots clash, calling it a "major, sold-out hit" and implying he beat the NFL.
"The Republican Midterm Convention last night, in Dallas, was a major, sold-out hit, far bigger, better, and more important than anyone thought possible," Trump posted on Truth Social.
"It was really something, streaming all over the place, and really big numbers, despite going up against the NFL."
Source: “AOL Sports”
