The NFL made a strategic decision this year to pit its two most-watched teams against each other on its most-watched day of regular-season football. Stacy Revere / Getty Images
CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz called last Thursday’s late-afternoon NFL game perfect confluence of three of the biggest brands in American culture — the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs and Thanksgiving.
And the result of that confluence?
The most-watched regular season game in the NFL history — and a head-spinning viewership number.
A whopping 57.2 million viewers watched Dallas’ 31-28 Thanksgiving Day victory over Kansas City on CBS, per a source with knowledge of the data. The late-afternoon game’s average viewership shattered the previous regular-season record set three Thanksgivings ago, when the Cowboys and Giants drew 42 million viewers in 2022 on FOX.
The record was not accidental. The NFL made a strategic decision this year to pit its two most-watched teams against each other on its most-watched day of regular-season football. Viewership is the engine that drives the NFL, and setting a new regular-season viewership record, especially by this much, is news that will cross over from the “inside baseball” world of sports media and sports business writers into the broader sports-fan ecosystem.
The Packers’ 31-24 win over the Lions in the early Thanksgiving Day game averaged 47.7 million viewers on Fox and Tubi, a massive number that was aided by the NFL moving kickoff back 30 minutes for a 1:00 p.m. ET start.
Viewership for the Bears-Eagles Black Friday game on Prime Video is expected to be available on Thursday.
The Thanksgiving Day viewership numbers obviously got a heavy boost from Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel Technology, which offers better data for out-of-home viewership, a massive factor particularly on Thanksgiving. But the quality of the game always matters, as does momentum. The Cowboys entered the game following a massive comeback win over the Eagles, complete with a thrilling finish. The Chiefs’ 23-20 overtime victory over the Colts prior to Thanksgiving essentially saved their season. Then came a very watchable Thanksgiving Day game that was still close in the final quarter.
Both the Chiefs and Cowboys have big challenges ahead to make the postseason. As of today, The Athletic’s NFL Playoff Simulator had the Chiefs with a 37% chance to make the playoffs while the Cowboys were at 23%.
Dec 3, 2025
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