The NFL is coming back to our TVs – and bigger than ever.
As the 2025 season kicks off on Thursday, NFL fans are in for another record-breaking season of TV viewing hours. Assuming every game takes at least three hours, we’ll have more than 330 hours of NFL broadcasts. That’s about two full weeks packed into the next 18 weeks, or about two days longer than binging the 36 seasons of the “Simpsons.”
Of course, as with most products we crave, “more” comes with a price. Even if your TV is hooked to an antenna, to watch every regular season game, you could need five subscriptions: YouTube, ESPN, Prime Video, NFL Network and Netflix.
Number of time slots grows 41% since 2005
While the 2025 NFL schedule offers just a few extra hours over last year’s, it looks much different than the schedule did when Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers was rookie backup for the Packers in 2005.
Many of the new time slots in the past two decades have come from Thursday night games – now carried by Prime Video. In 2005, two of the three Thursday games were the traditional Thanksgiving games. The third was the opening night between the Raiders and Patriots – with a young Tom Brady at the helm. The NFL added the evening Thanksgiving game the following year in 2006, according to Pro Football Reference.
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The NFL schedule has expanded at the edges, too:
â—¾ The NFL added a 17th game in 2021, providing at least 15 hours of viewing time compared to the 2005 schedule.
◾ Two weeks of the Monday Night Football schedule include East Coast and West Coast games – much like the week-night NBA schedule. The 2025 schedule also staggers – between ABC and ESPN – two games an hour apart on two different Monday nights.
â—¾ In addition to Thanksgiving night, the NFL has also gained several hours around the holidays. The 3 p.m. Black Friday game, in its third season, appears to be here to stay as well as three games on Christmas.
NBA vs. NFL on Christmas Day in 2025
Next to the NFL, the NBA and MLB are distant seconds for American TV viewers, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan survey taken earlier this year. And the NFL’s schedulers clearly know it, considering the way the league’s schedule has morphed.
The NBA traditionally saw Dec. 25 as its day on the national stage – a kind of second Opening Day for the league. Since 2023, the NFL stepped on the NBA’s Christmas Day plans with three games. It will be interesting to see what Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2029, brings. Similarly, the MLB no longer plays World Series games on Sunday nights.
NFL adds a seventh international game in 2025
The other difference between this year’s schedule and Rodgers’ first season is the NFL’s series of international games.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends Americans get at least seven hours of sleep. That leaves 17 hours for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and staff. They’ll pretty much offer as many hours of football programing as waking hours during a third of NFL Sundays this season.
The NFL International Series started in 2007, but it wasn’t until 12 years ago that the league tested out a 9:30 a.m. ET game — essentially filling the day with football. This year’s slate of 9:30 a.m. international games, again, starts in Week 4 when the Vikings play Steelers and Rodgers at Croke Park in the NFL’s first regular-season game in Dublin, Ireland.
Searchable list of all 2025 NFL games
The searchable list below shows each scheduled and unscheduled matchup for the 2025 season. For example, if you just want to see the Philadelphia Eagles’ schedule, just type “Eagles” into the search bar. Or, if you’d like to see the Week 9 games, just type W9.
