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Viewership is in for the first week of the NFL preseason, and it shows a small ratings decline for NFL Network, though one game stood to break a decade-long record. Viewership for Rams-Chiefs was good enough to become NFL Network’s most-watched Week 1 preseason game since 2015, averaging 2.38 million viewers on Saturday afternoon. The six preseason games that aired on NFL Network last week averaged 1.93 million viewers, down from 2.1 million in Week 1 last year, which was an all-time high. Note that the comparison from last year to this year is not apples-to-apples, as Nielsen shifted to its new Big Data methodology after the 2025 preseason in September 2025. The shift to Big Data has generally boosted live sports viewership, in rare cases by as much as 15%. On the other hand, NFL Network also aired two Sunday games last year, which it did not do this year, and had a late 10 p.m. ET kickoff on the opening Thursday. According to Front Office Sports, excluding the Sunday games last year, viewership for Week 1 in 2026 was up 3% from 1.88 million last year. Rams-Chiefs surpassed last year’s Dolphins-Bears game to become the most-watched Week 1 preseason game on NFL Network since 2015. Viewership was up 9% from Saints-Chargers (2.18 million) in the same window last year. Packers-Steelers, the first game of the Thursday doubleheader on NFL Network, was second-best on the week with 2.28 million viewers. That’s up 21% from Colts-Ravens (1.89 million) last year. Viewership also surpassed Phillies-Twins (1.66 million) in the MLB Field of Dreams game on Netflix at the same time. Cowboys-Seahawks in primetime on Saturday was the only other NFL preseason game above 2 million viewers (there were four such games last year, two of which were on Sunday). That game averaged 2.23 million, up 29% from Jets-Packers (1.73 million) last year. The NFL lost to Baseball Night in America on Fox (3.08 million), but did surpass Minnesota Lynx-Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA on CBS (1.62 million). Viewership on NFL Network is in line with the increases from the Pro Football Hall of Fame game on NBC a week earlier. Arizona Cardinals-Carolina Panthers averaged 7.0 million viewers, up 1% from Steelers-Cowboys last year (6.9 million). The NFL will have a better viewership check next week. Unlike Week 1, there will be two nationally televised games outside of NFL Network. On Thursday, Las Vegas Raiders-Houston Texans will air on ESPN, while on Sunday primetime, Seattle Seahawks-Tennessee Titans will be on Fox.