NFL Thanksgiving Delivers Record-Breaking Ratings as Cowboys Top Chiefs in Thriller
If you were anywhere near a TV on Thanksgiving, chances are you caught at least a few snaps of the Cowboys-Chiefs showdown-and you weren’t alone. The holiday clash between two of the NFL’s marquee franchises didn’t just live up to the hype, it rewrote the record books.
The Dallas Cowboys edged out the Kansas City Chiefs in a 31-28 thriller that had all the ingredients of a classic-star power, drama, and a whole lot of viewers. In fact, it became the most-watched regular-season game in NFL history, drawing an eye-popping 57.2 million viewers on CBS.
That number didn’t just break the previous record-it obliterated it. The old mark of 42.1 million, set during a 2022 Giants-Cowboys game, now looks modest by comparison.
To put that in perspective, this year’s Cowboys-Chiefs game outperformed the previous high by 36 percent, and it soared past last year’s late Thanksgiving window (Giants-Cowboys again) by 47 percent. The viewership crescendoed to a staggering 61.36 million during the game’s dramatic finish.
This was more than just a ratings win-it was a cultural moment. You had Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce on one sideline, Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb on the other, and a national holiday as the backdrop. Throw in the fact that both teams came into the game with Super Bowl aspirations, and you’ve got a recipe for TV gold.
CBS Sports President and CEO David Berson summed it up best: *“The NFL. Thanksgiving.
Chiefs. Cowboys.
A perfect recipe for a record audience.” *
But the Cowboys-Chiefs game wasn’t the only one drawing massive numbers. The early Thanksgiving matchup between the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers also turned heads, pulling in 47.7 million viewers across Fox and Tubi. That makes it the second most-watched regular-season game in league history and the most-watched since Fox began broadcasting the NFL back in 1994.
That early window saw a peak audience of 57.96 million, as fans tuned in to see the Packers spoil the Lions’ holiday hopes in front of a raucous Ford Field crowd. For context, last year’s early game-Bears vs.
Lions-averaged 37.5 million viewers. This year’s jump shows just how much appetite there is for high-stakes football on Thanksgiving morning.
And the nightcap didn’t disappoint either. The Cincinnati Bengals’ 32-14 win over the Baltimore Ravens drew 28.4 million viewers on NBC, setting a new record for the most-watched Thanksgiving night game. That breaks the previous high of 27.8 million from 2015, when the Bears and Packers squared off during Brett Favre’s jersey retirement ceremony at Lambeau.
This year’s Bengals-Ravens matchup had plenty of intrigue on its own, with Joe Burrow returning to the lineup and putting on a show. The game may not have been close on the scoreboard, but it still kept fans locked in throughout the evening.
Across the board, the NFL’s Thanksgiving slate was a ratings juggernaut, driven by compelling matchups, star quarterbacks, and the tradition of football taking center stage on the holiday. From early morning to primetime, fans showed up in record numbers-and the league delivered in a big way.