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The 2025 Pro Bowl Made Embarrassing History On Sunday

Originally posted on The Spun | By Hunter Hodies | Last updated Feb 4, 2025 2:38 PM ET

The NFL Pro Bowl continues to go downhill.

Even when the game was still played with pads on, the views weren't great since nobody was trying, and the same can be said for the new format of flag football.

Despite the NFL's effort to increase viewership for its annual All-Star game, it's had the opposite effect.

This past Sunday featured the Pro Bowl and it delivered terrible ratings, averaging only 4.7 million views on ABC, ESPN, and Disney XD. Per Front Office Sports, it's the lowest audience ever for the game.

It was an 18% decrease in viewers last year when the Pro Bowl averaged 5.75 million viewers. 2023 was the first year of the new format with flag football and it only had 6.2 million viewers.

Even though the Pro Bowl wasn't fun to watch when the game featured tackling, it still delivered better ratings than these last few seasons. The NFC beat the AFC in a high-scoring affair on Sunday, 76-63.

People want to watch other things or do other things than watch this version of the Pro Bowl. Just look at what fans on social media are saying.

"No one cares. Just make the Pro Bowl like the All-Pro. Acknowledge the guys nominated (voting is a farce anyway), let them collect their bonuses that are attached to making it, and move on," one fan tweeted.

"Don’t have it. That’s the successful format. I promise no one will miss it," another tweet read.

"You mean flag football isn’t appealing to people?" another tweet read.

"You know what I'd watch instead of the Pro Bowl? Get the two worst teams in football to play the week before the Super Bowl. Winner gets the number 1 draft pick," Adam Crowley tweeted in 2018.

"There’s 2 issues I believe. Nobody wants to watch flag football on TV. There’s a reason regular flag football doesn’t get on primetime TV. Number 2, I think, is it would do better the week after the Super Bowl. People like me who watch every week use that weekend for family time," another fan tweeted.

We'll see if the NFL makes even more changes to the format for next year's Pro Bowl.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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