An essentially meaningless NFL exhibition game held last week with two fairly nondescript teams drew a massive viewership number, suggesting very big things to come for the league during the rest of the preseason and then during the 2026 regular season.
Last Thursday’s Pro Football Hall of Fame Game between the Cardinals and Panthers averaged 7 million viewers on NBC Sports and the Peacock streaming network. That figure is the highest for the NFL’s preseason opener from Canton, Ohio since the 2021 version involving the Steelers and Cowboys, and up 1% from last year’s more high-profile matchup involving the Chargers and Lions.
While it’s hardly surprising that the NFL continues to assert itself as the biggest thing in all of U.S. television, regardless of genre, this latest football game had a higher viewership than:
Every MLB regular-season game so far this season, including a high-profile Sunday night matchup in late June between the Red Sox and Yankees
The 2026 Home Run Derby, streamed exclusively on Netflix
