The NFL dominated American airwaves once again

2024 has wrapped up, meaning we have the data for the top 100 U.S. TV broadcasts of the year. Unsurprisingly, the NFL dominated the airwaves once again. Super Bowl 58 between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers was the most-watched broadcast of the year and was the most-watched Super Bowl of all time.

123.7 million people watched the Super Bowl, completely dwarfing the 67.1 million people who watched the debate between President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the second most-watched broadcast of the year. In fact, the debate and the third most-watched broadcast, the NFC Championship, combined for about the same amount of viewers as the Super Bowl.

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The top ten broadcasts were a competition between the NFL and political programming, unsurprising in a Presidential Election year. Continuing down the list, the NFL fills up the top 100. 72 of the top 100 broadcasts in America were NFL games. Every playoff game made the list in the top 50 as football continued its grip over the American sports watching public.

There were no NBA or NHL games on the list, although the Women's College Basketball National Championship between South Carolina and Iowa slotted in at 76 on the list. There was one baseball game on the list, Game 5 of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, at 84. Two Olympics coverage nights, nights two and four, slotted in at 82 and 89 respectively.

The NFL's 72 appearances on the 2024 list is a big decrease from 93 in 2023, but as mentioned 2024 being a Presidential Election and Summer Olympics year largely contributed to that. A year ago, the top 20 broadcasts were all NFL, while in 2024 the NFL had 15 of the top 20.

With no big events coming in 2025, expect the NFL to have a similar year to 2023 on the airwaves; complete and utter domination yet again.