NFL Deals Major Blow To NBA, Reminds Them That They’re Still ‘Little Brother’
This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.
Unlike the NBA’s action-packed slate, the 2025 NFL Christmas games certainly weren’t that dramatic whatsoever. But in terms of ratings? It wasn’t even a contest.
For the fifth straight year, fans were treated to multiple NFL Christmas games. But the Dallas Cowboys-Washington Commanders, Minnesota Vikings-Detroit Lions and Denver Broncos-Kansas City Chiefs games didn’t bring the development that so many had hoped.
Washington was forced to play third-string quarterback Josh Johnson. The Vikings were down to Max Brosmer. With Patrick Mahomes and Gardner Minshew II both sidelined, KC had to run out third-string QB Chris Oladokun.
Despite the lack of drama in the NFL Christmas Games? The NFL blew the NBA out of the water in terms of ratings. Each contest had at least 19.9 million viewers, with the Lions-Vikings game leading the way at 27.5 million, per Ari Meirov.
Among the five highly anticipated NBA Christmas Day games, the San Antonio Spurs-Oklahoma City Thunder game led the way with 6.7 million.
NFL and NBA viewership numbers for their Christmas games:
NFL (Netflix, Amazon):
– Cowboys-Commanders: 19.9M
– Lions-Vikings: 27.5M
– Broncos-Chiefs: 21.1MNBA (ESPN, ABC)
– Cavaliers-Knicks: 6.4M
– Spurs-Thunder: 6.7M
– Mavericks-Warriors: 6.1M
– Rockets-Lakers: 5.4M
-… pic.twitter.com/QwY2Zswl3R— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 31, 2025
And to think ratings would have likely been higher if Patrick Mahomes hadn’t suffered a season-ending ACL tear. Considering the Broncos were the only one of those six teams in the playoff mix? The NFL will take those ratings any day.
NFL & Netflix Have An Easy Decision To Extend Their Deal
In 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that Netflix was paying the NFL $75 million per Christmas Day game that they exclusively streamed. Netflix aired two NFL Christmas games in both 2024 and 2025, with Amazon Prime Video broadcasting the Broncos-Chiefs contest.
Despite the competition from the NBA, the NFL had no issue racking up tremendous ratings. And again, the numbers would have been higher if they hadn’t had three lackluster games on the schedule.
The NFL-Netflix Christmas game deal is in effect through the 2026 season. However, the two sides have an easy decision to make regarding renewing their agreement for 2027 and beyond.
