Ratings Roundup: 2025 NFL Draft Viewership Slots Event at Second Most-Watched Ever By SVG Staff
Friday, May 2, 2025 - 7:40 am
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Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, the 2025 NFL Draft becomes the second most-watched ever, more than 8 million fans tuned into Game 5 of the Stanley Cup across North America, ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball hits second consecutive week of over 2 million viewers; and more.
2025 NFL Draft Is Second Most-Watched Draft Ever The 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay was seen by an average audience of 7.5 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, NFL Network, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and digital channels for the three-day event, making it the second most-watched Draft on record behind only 2020 and up 27% versus last year.
All seven rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft were presented across ESPN, ABC and NFL Network - the seventh straight year that The Walt Disney Company worked with the National Football League to offer a multi-network presentation of the Draft.
Round 1 coverage on Thursday averaged 13.6 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, NFL Network, ESPN Deportes and digital channels - up 11% versus 2024 and the second most-watched Day 1 on record.
Coverage of Rounds 2 and 3 on Friday averaged 7.5 million viewers across ESPN2, ABC, NFL Network, ESPN Deportes and digital channels - the second most-watched Day 2 on record and up 48% versus 2024.
Saturday's coverage of Rounds 4-7 averaged 4.3 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, NFL Network, ESPN Deportes and digital channels, making it the most-watched Day 3 on record and up 43% versus 2024.
Over the three days, more than 600,000 fans attended the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay, matching Nashville's record in 2019 for the second-highest attendance in Draft history.
NFL programming is the most valuable content in all of sports and entertainment. NFL games ranked as 90 of the top 100 telecasts during the 2024 season.
ESPN Digital & Social 2025: No. 1 in March ESPN Digital & Social topped the U.S. Sports Category in March with 194.0 million unique users, reaching 69% of the U.S. adult population across digital, YouTube and social media platforms, according to recently released Comscore data.
The ESPN App remained No. 1 in March, reaching 28.4 million unique users, more than the next seven non-ESPN apps combined and four times its nearest competitor in the Mobile Sports App category.
With 5.8 million unique users, the ESPN Fantasy App was No. 1 among fantasy sports apps and the ESPN Tournament Challenge app reached 3.1 millionunique fans
ESPN Social reached more than 793 million engagements - 25.6 million per day - in March (up 16% YoY), the 45th month in a row at No. 1 among sports properties
ESPN Digital & Social reached 91% of audiences 18-44.
ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball Averaged 1.68 Million Viewers for Philadelphia Phillies Extra-Innings Win Over Chicago Cubs
Averaged 1.68 million viewers
Peaked at 2.08 million viewers
Up 31% vs. comparable game last year
NASCAR Cup Series Averages 4 Million Viewers Per Minute; NASCAT Xfinity Series 3rd Most Watched Xfinity Race on The CW
NASCAR Cup Series: The event earned a 2.18 household rating on FOX with an average of 4.0 million viewers tuned in per minute, ranking NASCAR as the #2 sports event on Sunday behind only one NBA Playoff game, which ranked as the #1 sports telecast of the week (Lakers/Timberwolves on ABC opposite NCS on FOX)
The 4.0 million average viewers per minute ranks as the largest average audience for a sports event on the FOX family of networks since NCS COTA in early March
At peak, 4.8 million viewers were tuned in
NASCAR Xfinity Series: the event earned a 0.73 household rating on The CW with an average of 1.3 million viewers tuned in, ranking as the 3rd most-watched Xfinity race on The CW since airing exclusively on the network starting in September last year (18 races)
This marks the 11th consecutive week NXS has averaged over 1 million viewers per race and is the most-watched telecast of the week on The CW
At peak, 1.6 million viewers were tuned in
Weekend Motorsports, ranked by audience size:
NCS (Talladega I): 4.041 million viewers on FOX
NXS (Talladega I): 1.260 million viewers on The CW
Supercross (Pittsburgh): 356,000 viewers on NBC
ARCA (Talladega): 317,000 viewers on FS1
NHRA (Charlotte): 254,000 viewers on FS1
NASCAR Cup Series Jack's Links 500 Aired Sunday, April 27th on FOX
U.S. Rating
2025: 2.18
Down -10% versus 2024 Talladega I on FOX (2.41)
Avg. Viewers (000) (all ages P2 )
2025: 4,041 (4.0 million)
Down -6% versus 2024 Talladega I on FOX (4.3 million)
NASCAR Xfinity Series Ag-Pro 300 Aired Saturday, April 26th on The CW
U.S. Rating
2025: 0.73
Down -22% versus 2024 Talladega I on FOX (0.93)
Avg. Viewers (000) (all ages P2 )
2025: 1,260 (1.3 million)
Down -21% versus 2024 Talladega I on FOX (1.6 million)
ESPN Platforms Averaging Largest NBA Playoffs Audience Ever Through 11 Games ESPN is generating its largest NBA Playoffs audience ever across its platforms, according to Nielsen. Through 11 games, ESPN platforms are averaging 4,448,000 viewers, up 13 percent from last year. The second weekend of the NBA Playoffs, Saturday, April 26, and Sunday, April 27, averaged 5,462,000 viewers on ESPN platforms, up four percent from last season.
This past weekend's viewership was led by Sunday's Game 4 of the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves on ABC. The Timberwolves victory over the Lakers averaged 7,345,000 viewers,
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Ratings Roundup: 2025 NFL Draft Viewership Slots Event at Second Most-Watched Ever By SVG Staff 
