NFL Posts Huge Ratings For Week 1: Here Are The Companies And Stocks That Could Benefit From A Strong Season The first week of the National Football League 2022 season kicked off on Sept. 8 with a Thursday Night Football matchup between the Buffalo Bills and defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams. The games broadcast on Thursday, Sunday and Monday posted strong viewership figures. Here’s a look at the numbers and the companies behind the big figures. What Happened: Viewership for the first week of NFL games was up compared to the first week of 2021, which could be a good sign for the companies spending billions of dollars on streaming rights. NFL games in the first week averaged 18.5 million viewers, up 3% from last season’s first week. This marked the best start to an NFL season since 2016, according to Front Office Sports. More than 121 million people watched NFL games in the first week, a figure that was up 5% from the previous year. On Sunday, around 83 million people watched NFL games. “As the viewership numbers would indicate, our fans are obviously excited to have the NFL back,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.