NFL popularity continues to grow as viewership numbers are up

Sports betting is doing nothing to dim the enthusiasm for Thursday night football in the USA.

The NFL has revealed Thursday night’s match-up between Pittsburg and Carolina, which the Steelers won 52-21, was seen by an average audience of 15.4 million viewers across all platforms, including FOX, NFL Network, FOX Deportes, NFL digital, FOX Sports digital, Amazon and Yahoo Sports.

This was a 15% increase on last year’s Week 10 Thursday Night Football matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals, and ab 8% increase on the 2017 10-game Thursday Night Football average (TV + digital).

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This beggars the question if there is even more interest in the NFL following the decision to legalise sports betting at a Federal level, essentially allowing each USA state to decide their own fete in regards to gambling.

The Nielsen-measured audience was 14.8 million viewers – up 13% versus the 2017 Week 10 Thursday Night Football game (13.1 million) and up 7% versus the 2017 10-game Thursday Night Football average on CBS/NBC and NFL Network (13.8 million).

Additionally, Panthers-Steelers averaged an 8.9 HH rating – up 12% versus last year’s Seahawks-Cardinals matchup (7.9 HH rating) and 6% versus the 2017 10-game Thursday Night Football average (8.4 HH rating).

Digital streaming across Amazon Prime Video, Twitch, NFL digital platforms, FOX Sports digital platforms and Yahoo Sports produced an average minute audience of 782K – an increase of +105% vs last year’s Week 10 Thursday Night Football matchup between the Seahawks and Cardinals (381K) and a 78% increase on the 2017 10-game average (439K).

Amazon Prime Video and Twitch reached a total of 2.2 million combined viewers worldwide for the FOX NFL Thursday pre-game show and the Panthers-Steelers game. For the Panthers-Steelers game alone, 2.0 million worldwide viewers initiated a stream on Prime Video or Twitch. The average worldwide audience watching Thursday Night Football for at least 30 seconds on Prime Video or Twitch was 540K.

Thursday night football continues on November 15 when quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers travel to face quarterback Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks on FOX, NFL Network and Amazon Prime Video. Coverage from Seattle begins at 6PM ET on NFL Network with NFL GameDay Kickoff.