Why is it when someone points out the overall viewership has been dropping does someone always want to point to one game, just one, as a supposed indicator that it isn't true and even that number doesn't quite hit the weekly average from the previous season? Come now, let's look at all the facts.
Average Audience of Regular Season NFL Games
2020 15.4 million
2019 16.5 million
2018 15.8 million
2017 15.0 million
2016 16.5 million
2015 18.7 million
2014 17.6 million
Often because even these are skewed without considering trends in TV viewership and the ability to accurately track viewership on other platforms, and don't provide the context to better understand the drop in viewership.
For example,
in 2020:
As mentioned above, the average NFL regular season game drew about 15.4 million viewers. The six most watched shows in primetime, excluding football, are averaging 11.2 million viewers through Jan. 17 (including a week of delayed viewing) — a 37.5 percent advantage for the NFL (and probably slightly higher: the football figures don’t include delayed viewing).
In 2019, the league averaged 16.5 million viewers per game, about 33 precent more than the 12.43 million for the top six non-sports shows. So even though the league lost more than a million viewers per game, the gap between it and biggest entertainment shows only widened. What’s more, the top six shows for the current season includes CBS’ 60 Minutes; excluding that, the six most watched entertainment shows draw 10.91 million viewers, trailing the NFL by a 41 percent margin.
TV viewership in general is down - but not down as much for the NFL. So yeah, the '
NFL is dying!' narrative (getting some of this locally too over the Raiders requiring vaccines, and then 1800 relinquished 2020 season tickets re-sold out in 40 minutes) has never really been alive itself.
Why is it when someone points out the overall viewership has been dropping does someone always want to point to one game
I didn't respond to anyone, so kind of confused why you had to prop up this false argument to begin your post.