YouTube’s free NFL broadcast drew 17 million viewers

YouTube’s exclusive rights to the first Friday night game of the NFL season seems to have paid off.

Over 17.3 million football fans watched the exclusive NFL broadcast on YouTube TV last Friday, according to Google (via Variety). Millions tuned in on the streaming platform to watch the Los Angeles Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs (27-21), which was broadcast by YouTube for free.

YouTube won the coveted exclusive rights for the Friday game, which was held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The game took place on Sept. 5, the day after the NFL season opener on Thursday. YouTube told Variety the 17.3 million stat included 1.1 million viewers outside of the U.S., with 16.2 million views across YouTube and other distribution platforms in the U.S.

Over the past few years, streaming platforms have paid extravagant sums to the NFL in exchange for broadcasting rights throughout the football season. Amazon Prime has the Thursday Night Football rights and YouTube has the Sunday Night ticket. Other games are broadcast by Netflix, NBC’s Peacock, classic networks like ESPN and Fox, and others, forming a confusing, patchwork schedule requiring multiple subscriptions, which can quickly add up for viewers. On top of that, fans will need additional subscriptions to watch all of the out-of-market NFL games.

Mashable’s Tim Marcin did the math last year and calculated that it would cost $891.36 in streaming bills to watch all the 2024 NFL games.

While the Friday game was free to watch, YouTube was, of course, promoting its Sunday Night ticket. This subscription, which streams regular-season games broadcast on Fox and CBS, will set you back $85 a month (or $276 for the full season). Professional football is obviously a big business, and the number of people tuning in proves that.

By comparison, Amazon reported a season average of 12.3 million viewers for its Thursday Night Football broadcast, according to Variety.