NFL's soaring ratings continue with Dublin, SNF hits

The Pittsburgh Steelers' 24-21 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL's debut game in Dublin drew 7.9 million viewers last Sunday, while the league closed out the night with an average of 26.9 million people watching Green Bay and Dallas battle to a 40-40 tie in prime time.

The viewership for the Dublin game, which includes television and digital but not OTA numbers, is the second most-watched international game ever on the NFL Network, according to the league. It is topped only by the 2024 Miami-Kansas City game played in Frankfurt, Germany.

The 7.9 million figure represents a 68 percent increase over the NFL Network's average for it's 2024 international games. The Steelers-Vikings also drew an average more than nine million viewers between 12:30 p.m. ET and the end of the game.

This season's international games continues with three consecutive games in London beginning with the Vikings playing the Cleveland Browns at Tottenham Hostpur Stadium at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the highly anticipated game between the Packers and Cowboys that saw pass rusher Micah Parsons return to Dallas for the first time ranked as the third most-watched game of the season. It has been topped only by the average of 28.3 million viewers for the Cowboys' game against the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL's season kickoff game on Sept. 4, and the 33.8 million viewers for the Super Bowl rematch between the Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2.

The Packers-Cowboys game saw NBC bring its "Football Night in America" pre-game show to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and halftime included the announcement of Bad Bunny as the halftime act for Super Bowl LX.

Through the first four weeks of the season, NBC is averaging 25.5 million viewers for its Sunday night games, up 6 percent from last season.

It continues a trend that saw viewership of all NFL games through Week 3 averaging 20.5 million viewers.