NFL: TV audiences, down previous two years in the US, increases by 5% in 2018 (after 12 weeks)

The NFL's 2018 regular season games, after 12 weeks of competition, have an average audience of 15.8 million viewers per game in the US, according to the media outlet ESPN on 28/11/2018.

In 2017, the games of the regular season, across all 17 weeks of competition, had an average audience of 14.9 million viewers per game. Audiences are currently up 5% after two consecutive years of decline:
• 2016: 16.5 million (-9.7% between 2017 and 2016)
• 2015: 17.9 million (-8% between 2016 and 2015)

These figures do not include streaming audiences, including Amazon Prime (see below).

The NFL currently has 19 of the top 20 TV audiences in the USA this year, across all programming, and 46 of the top 50 TV figures, according to ESPN. These rising audiences could be explained by the record number of points (8,502) and touchdowns (980) scored after 12 weeks of competition, according to the US media outlet.

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