🎄Christmas Day @NFL Games Set Streaming Records🎄
🏈Lions-Vikings on @netflix avg. 27.5 million viewers — most-streamed NFL game ever in US
🏈Broncos-Chiefs on @PrimeVideo avg. 21.1 million viewers — most-watched TNF regular season game in @NFLonPrime history
More below ⬇️
— NFL Media (@NFLMedia) December 31, 2025
Move over, NBA! The NFL is the new king of Christmas Day!
The numbers just arrived from the Denver Broncos‘ Week 17 matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs set a new Thursday Night Football regular-season viewership record, with an average of 21.1 million viewers on Christmas Day. The record viewership broke the previous record for an Amazon Prime broadcast from the Dallas Cowboys-Detroit Lions tilt earlier in December. For all three Christmas games, football dominated basketball, which only had about 6 million viewers per game. Although many people have been upset about the NFL taking the NBA’s former marquee day, there is little doubt that the NFL has taken over as America’s game.
The huge numbers come in spite of all Christmas games featuring backup quarterbacks in some form or fashion. The Washington Commanders started Josh Johnson, the Minnesota Vikings started Max Brosmer and the Kansas City Chiefs had Chris Oladokun under center.
Despite the less than star power on the field, the NFL came out in a big way on Christmas.
NFL and NBA viewership numbers for their Christmas games:
NFL (Netflix, Amazon):
– Cowboys-Commanders: 19.9M
– Lions-Vikings: 27.5M
– Broncos-Chiefs: 21.1M
NBA (ESPN, ABC)
– Cavaliers-Knicks: 6.4M
– Spurs-Thunder: 6.7M
– Mavericks-Warriors: 6.1M
– Rockets-Lakers: 5.4M
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— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 31, 2025
On top of the big Christmas numbers, the Broncos came away with a big win, allowing them to secure the AFC West crown for the first time in a decade.
Social: Follow Broncos Wire on Facebook and Twitter/X! Did you know: These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans.