YouTube’s first exclusive NFL game, featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers—as well as some of the platform’s biggest creators—averaged 16.2 million U.S. viewers, the company announced Monday.
That number includes those tuning in over-the-air in the teams’ local markets. Another 1.1 million watched from outside America, YouTube says, accounting for more than 230 countries and territories, which brings global viewership up to 17.3 million.
The viewership numbers put YouTube’s debut roughly in line with ESPN’s average Monday Night Football contest from last year, and above what Peacock drew for the first game from Brazil during Week 1 a year ago (14.2 million). Netflix’s pair of Christmas games last December remain the most-streamed in NFL history, averaging about 24 million.
Nielsen tabulated the U.S. ratings while the NFL has expressed some dissatisfaction with the way the measurement company reports numbers in today’s streaming world. ESPN SVP of research Flora Kelly posted on X before the game Friday that Nielsen was using “a custom methodology” for the YouTube game, meaning “their rating is not a fair comp.”
YouTube’s game broadcast was largely traditional, with Rich Eisen and Kurt Warner commentating, though the web giant added its own fingerprint to moments around the action. A MrBeast-led video segment kicked off the show, and at the end of the night, the YouTube creator blasted a Chiefs fan through a custom field goal post. An NFL-posted clip of the latter moment garnered 2 million views on TikTok. According to SocialBlade data, the league has added nearly 500,000 subscribers to its main YouTube channel over the last week, giving it about 3.5% as many as MrBeast (432 million).
YouTube also called in Deestroying to man the sidelines, while creators IShowSpeed and Tom Grossi offered English-language co-streams of the event for their own fanbases.
In announcing the viewership results after LA’s 27-21 win, YouTube referred to the contest as its “inaugural exclusive live global broadcast of an NFL game,” indicating the potential for more to come. Google’s subsidiary company already has exclusive distribution rights for the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package in a seven-year, $14 billion tie-up.
