The 2019 NFL Draft was a smashing success by any measurement.
On the ground, the NFL saw its largest crowd to ever attend the Draft in person. Certainly the outdoor venue helped, but no matter what advantages the league may have had in Nashville, 600,000 people attending your event is nothing to scoff at.
The success was evident in the digital space as well. The NFL Draft averaged 6.1 million viewers across the many linear TV and streaming platforms that showed it.
Any worry that the TV pie would be sliced too thinly with ABC adding its own coverage this year was proven wrong. The NFL reports a total audience of 47.5 million watched the Draft on TV. That represents a 5% increase over the previous record set in 2018.
Next year’s Draft will be held in Las Vegas. Still, the NFL might have to pull out all the stops to beat the live attendance record. As for TV viewership, we will have to wait and see what bells and whistles, or even full network broadcasts are added before we can gauge how likely it is that the NFL surpasses 47.5 million viewers.
