It seems everyone wanted a piece of the gridiron pie this Thanksgiving, especially in Arlington, Texas, where the Dallas Cowboys hosted a spectacular that smacked right through previous viewership records. The Cowboys’ face-off with the Kansas City Chiefs garnered an average of 57.2 million viewers on CBS, breaking all past NFL regular-season game records, according to the City of Arlington's news release. The previous record, set by the Cowboys-Giants game just a year prior, stood at a then-impressive 42.1 million viewers, but clearly, this was the Cowboys' year to lasso in an even bigger audience.
The entirety of Thanksgiving’s NFL programming was on a hot streak, not just in Arlington but across the board, with an average viewership sitting pretty at 44.7 million viewers – and that's counting all three games of the day. Featuring an average minute audience of 2.2 million engaging via digital streaming platforms, the numbers were up by 58% from last year, indicating a growth in how fans consume their holiday football, setting a new bar for digital engagement on Thanksgiving Day.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was quoted as saying, “Thanksgiving and NFL football have become synonymous,” in the City of Arlington's news release. He expressed gratitude towards teams and broadcast partners, lauding the games and their role in family holiday traditions. There's a clear pull football has on the American consciousness during this particular day of feasting, and the metrics speak volumes – or in this case, millions.
