Football is king: NFL dominates television viewing in 2023

Football remains king in the United States and as viewing habits change with streaming, live sports still demand the attention of the viewing audience at large.

Of the 100 most-watched television broadcasts in 2023, a whopping 93 of them were related to professional football, including the top 20 most-viewed telecasts, according to Nielsen (via Sportico). In 2022, 82 NFL games were among the top 100 telecasts.

The viewing standard remains the Super Bowl, and the Feb. 12 game, broadcast by Fox, was viewed by 115.1 million people, making it the most-watched broadcast in television history.

The game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles received a 40.4 share, meaning that 40 percent of the televisions in the United States were tuned into the Super Bowl.

Breaking the string of football-watching was President Joseph Biden's State of the Union address, which was broadcast on multiple networks. It was watched by 27.3 million people.

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The 97th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day on NBC (22.3 million), the Michigan-Ohio State game on Fox (19.1 million), ABC's airing of the 95th Academy Awards (18.8 million), Alabama's upset of Georgia in the SEC title game (17.5 million), Georgia routing TCU in the College Football Playoff title game (17.2 million) and an episode of Next Level Chef on Fox (15.7 million) were the highest non-NFL related telecast last year.

By comparison, the NCAA women's basketball final between LSU and Iowa, and seen by a record 9.9 million viewers. It ranked 161st on the list this year.