Week one of the 2025 NFL season is in the books, and YouTube is touting the healthy results of its first exclusive gridiron broadcast. The platform’s coverage of the Brazil-set tilt between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers drew an average-minute-audience of 17.3 million, according to data from Nielsen.
That was a big enough viewership total to set a new record for the most-watched live stream in YouTube history. A YouTube rep confirmed that the viewership number includes YouTube and YouTube TV, local over-the-air distributors for in-market teams, and NFL+.
By NFL standards, however, YouTube’s traffic was fairly pedestrian. The opening game of the 2025 slate, which took place the night before YouTube’s broadcast, hauled in a Nielsen rating of 28.3 million across NBC networks and Peacock. In 2024, the average NFL broadcast reached 17.5 million viewers, though that season’s Brazil game had 16% fewer viewers than YouTube’s exclusive.
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So from a ratings perspective, YouTube was right on the money. The Google-owned platform proved that it could handle NFL-sized viewership without encountering major technical hiccups (looking at you, Netflix). The improved results over last year’s Brazil game could pave the way for future NFL exclusives on YouTube.
YouTube’s audience may have been typical NFL traffic, but the broadcast itself was far from ordinary. The on-air team offered an eclectic mix of media personalities, retired football players, and creators, with MrBeast’s introductory video setting the tone from the first minute of the stream. In general, the coverage felt looser and more irreverent than a typical NFL broadcast. Derek Carr did his Jon Gruden impression during pre-game analysis, Cam Newton stole the show at halftime with a ridiculous outfit, and Deestroying roamed the sidelines to offer a fan’s perspective.
If you’re a fan of YouTube and its community of homegrown creators, segments like that one felt like appropriate homages to the host platform. YouTube draws some of its disruptive power from its ability to peel back the curtain and offer a more personal connection between entertainers and fans, so it felt right that YouTube’s take on an NFL game involved human cannons, iShowSpeed commentary, and ad-libbed moments.
As fitting as that approach may have been, it wasn’t for everyone. In particular, MrBeast’s outsized presence drew the ire of many football fans. In widely shared posts on X, the broadcast’s semi-regular throws to MrBeast were compared to force-feeding and other forms of torture. More astute critics questioned whether creators like MrBeast and iShowSpeed possess enough ball knowledge to make meaningful contributions to an NFL broadcast.
YouTube could have limited the creator cameos, but then its NFL coverage would feel the same as what you’d get on any other network. In other words, the platform is caught in the same tug-of-war that has been part of its identity from its early days to the present: It must figure out how to strike a balance between creators and traditional celebrities, even in cases when those two broad fanbases don’t overlap. Hopefully, YouTube will get more chances to find the right mix on future NFL exclusives.
As for the game itself? Justin Herbert led his Chargers to an upset win over the Chiefs. Herbert has collabed with creators himself, so maybe the YouTube community has more in common with the game of football than the haters seem to think.
