The season started with a throwback matchup on Sept. 9, and the Seahawks edged the Patriots 13-10. NBC reported the broadcast and Peacock stream combined for more than 25 million viewers. It was only the second time the NFL has staged its kickoff on a Wednesday, and the audience came in 5% higher than the prior Wednesday opener in 2012, though 11% below the 2025 opener, which aired on a Thursday. NBC notes NFL telecasts continue to dominate viewing, with Sunday Night Football ranking as the top prime time TV show for the 15th straight season in 2025-2026.
The following day, Netflix showed the first NFL game ever played in Australia. The San Francisco 49ers faced the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne on Sept. 10, pulling an average of 18.5 million U.S. viewers. The league has been putting more games overseas, and Netflix picked up more matchups this season after previously carrying only Christmas Day contests.
The NBC opener coincided with the inaugural Republican Midterm Convention, covered by outlets including C-SPAN, Fox News, NewsNation and Newsmax, as well as streaming platforms like YouTube. President Donald Trump delivered a prime-time address that ran nearly two hours, promising $5,000 for every adult U.S. citizen if Republicans keep control of both chambers of Congress. Afterward he said the event was "far bigger, better, and more important than anyone thought possible," and asserted the "overall numbers beat the NFL," without sharing any figures or naming a specific network or platform. In a social post he added, "It was really something, streaming all over the place, and really big numbers, despite going up against the NFL."
Measured TV viewership does not support Trump's comparison. In primetime, roughly 3.7 million people tuned to Fox News, CNN and MS Now. In prime time, Fox News pulled an average of 2.3 million viewers, per Nielsen, a small uptick from its August average of 2.1 million.
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For your wallet, the takeaway is simple: sports still command huge, predictable audiences, while political events can spike interest but usually trail the NFL's scale. Claims travel fast across platforms; verified audience data moves slower, and that gap is worth remembering when you size up where attention and ad dollars actually go.
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