Overview
- The NFL’s three-day draft coverage averaged 6.6 million viewers across TV and streaming, a 12% decline from 2025.
- Opening night drew 13.2 million viewers across platforms, down 3% from last year but still among the strongest first rounds on record.
- Pittsburgh hosted 805,000 fans over the three-day event, which the league said is the largest in-person draft crowd to date.
- Analysts pointed to fewer Friday and Saturday twists compared with last year’s Shedeur Sanders slide as a key reason the later rounds drew smaller audiences.
- The reported totals now blend Nielsen TV ratings with streaming metrics from platforms like YouTube, TikTok and X, making clean year-to-year comparisons harder.