- May 21, 2026
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The Monday Night Football opener drew a big audience, with the Chiefs' 31-10 win over the Broncos getting 23.2 million viewers.
That number includes everyone who watched the main broadcast on ESPN and ABC, the ManningCast on ESPN2, the Spanish broadcast on ESPN Deportes and the stream on NFL+. ESPN did not announce how many viewers watched on each platform that showed the game.
It was ESPN's most-watched Monday Night Football Week 1 game and third-most watched Monday night game ever, although historical comparisons can be misleading because ratings today count out-of-home viewers who previously weren't counted.
This year's audience was 5 percent greater than last year's Week 1 Monday Night Football audience, which was 22.1 million viewers.
The pregame show Monday Night Countdown, had 1.9 million viewers, a 7 percent increase over Week 1 last year. That's a fairly small increase given that Monday Night Countdown now airs on both NFL Network and ESPN.
That number includes everyone who watched the main broadcast on ESPN and ABC, the ManningCast on ESPN2, the Spanish broadcast on ESPN Deportes and the stream on NFL+. ESPN did not announce how many viewers watched on each platform that showed the game.
It was ESPN's most-watched Monday Night Football Week 1 game and third-most watched Monday night game ever, although historical comparisons can be misleading because ratings today count out-of-home viewers who previously weren't counted.
This year's audience was 5 percent greater than last year's Week 1 Monday Night Football audience, which was 22.1 million viewers.
The pregame show Monday Night Countdown, had 1.9 million viewers, a 7 percent increase over Week 1 last year. That's a fairly small increase given that Monday Night Countdown now airs on both NFL Network and ESPN.