The 2026 edition of the annual NFL Draft failed to hit the viewership heights of 2025, but still became one of the most-watched of all time.
Round One of the draft, encompassing the first 32 picks, averaged 13.2 million viewers, making it the third most-watched NFL Draft ever, despite slipping 3% from the 13.6 million that took in the draft in 2025.
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The benchmark remains the 2020 Draft, which notched a record 15.5 million viewers, a figure likely boosted by the lack of competition from sports content due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced the event to take place online.
Nonetheless, the 2026 Draft outpaced the 2024 first round by 8%, illustrating the allure, much of which came from the intrigue surrounding the destinations of early picks such as Jeremiyah Love, Arvell Reese, David Bailey, and Sonny Styles.
The annual event was broadcast on linear TV across Disney-owned channels ESPN, ABC, and ESPN Deportes, as well as the Disney+ and Hulu OTT services, the ESPN App, the NFL’s own NFL Network channel and NFL+ platform, alongside social media and video platforms X, TikTok, and YouTube.
In person, the event achieved record attendance. Held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the NFL claims 805,000 attended across the entire duration of the draft, including a record 320,000 attendance for Round One on the first day.
The NFL added that the event also broke in-person merchandising records, owed in part to the league’s newly expanded merchandising agreement with partner Fanatics.
Fanatics is now the on-site retail operations manager for all of the league’s tentpole events, with the 2026 Draft the inauguration of the partnership.
This list also includes the annual Super Bowl, the NFL Kickoff Game, NFL international games, NFL Flag Football Championships, the NFL Scouting Combine, and the Pro Bowl.
The 2027 edition of the Draft will take place in the US capital of Washington, DC, with the league already pre-empting record attendance for the event.
US President Donald Trump announced in May 2025 that the major event will be staged at the city’s National Mall, with over 1 million people expected to attend across the three days.
Washington, DC last hosted the NFL Draft in 1940, and for most of the event’s history (between 1965 and 2014) it has been staged in New York City, before switching to a new model of hosting it in a different city every year in 2015, beginning with Chicago, Illinois.
