What Prime Video's record Thursday Night Football season says about streaming advertising

Prime Video's Thursday Night Football (TNF) just wrapped a record-setting 2025–2026 season, and the numbers tell a compelling story about reaching streaming audiences alongside their favorite sports.

With an average of 15.3 million viewers throughout its 15-game slate, Thursday Night Football on Prime Video delivered the most-watched season in the 20-year history of Thursday Night Football, surpassing every previous season across broadcast and cable networks. And with viewers skewing younger and 52% more likely to act on advertising,¹ the audience and engagement tell advertisers everything they need to know: Streaming delivers both reach and results.

This season revealed three important takeaways about live sports advertising: streaming audiences have reached true scale, these audiences engage fundamentally differently with advertising, and streaming's technical capabilities turn that engagement into measurable outcomes.

With an average of 15.3 million viewers throughout its 15-game slate, Thursday Night Football on Prime Video delivered the most-watched season in the 20-year history of Thursday Night Football, surpassing every previous season across broadcast and cable networks.

Streaming delivers audiences at scale—and it’s growing

TNF earned a 16% viewership increase over the 2024 season and a third-consecutive year of double-digit viewership growth. The Wild Card playoff game reached 31.6 million viewers, setting a new record for the most-streamed NFL game in history.

And speaking of growth, the 15-game Thursday Night Football on Prime Video season was watched by 122.09 million unique U.S. viewers (in-game viewers), marking an increase of more than 50 million since Prime Video’s inaugural season of exclusive coverage in 2022 (71.97M). 

As TNF continues to grow, the opportunity for Prime Sports extends beyond football season. Amazon's live sports portfolio now delivers year-round premium programming across football, basketball, racing, soccer and more.

Younger audiences are choosing streaming—and they're paying attention

Thursday Night Football on Prime Video viewers skewed nearly seven years younger than those watching NFL games on linear networks (median age 49.4 vs. 56.2) and earned 28% higher household income. Similar patterns hold across sports: NBA audiences skew eight years younger on Prime, NASCAR nearly seven years younger.

It’s important to recognize that younger audiences are cutting the cord, but it also matters what they’re doing instead. The 16.3 million viewers who tuned in for Black Friday's Bears-Eagles game made it the most-watched Black Friday sporting event in the U.S. since at least 1991. These aren't niche audiences supplementing their linear viewing, but rather they're mainstream audiences who are choosing streaming.

And they're more engaged. Per TVision, Thursday Night Football was the most attentive environment for NFL ads across the 2025 NFL season. In particular, Prime Video's Wild Card game attracted +9% higher attention among audiences vs. the average Wild Card game.²

TNF viewers were 52% more likely to search for advertised brands and products compared to viewers of other 2025 NFL regular season games, according to EDO measurement. Across all Prime Video sports programming, ads were 41% more engaging than the average competitive network and 20% more engaging than the number two network.³

Prime Sports viewers spend 2.3 times more and order 3.1 times more items on Amazon compared to other Amazon shoppers.⁴ When you reach audiences during premium entertainment, they're more receptive to brand messages and more likely to act on them.

Streaming's technical capabilities translate engagement into action

Streaming's unique capabilities turn attention into outcomes. Brands using Interactive Video Ads in Thursday Night Football, which allow viewers to access product information with a simple click or QR code scan, saw 27% higher purchase rates compared to traditional media. When paired with Audience-Based Creative, which delivers tailored messages to distinct audience segments, engagement rates increased an additional 14%.

The highest-performing format combined strategic placement with seamless purchase capabilities: in-game Retail Deals delivered 94% higher purchase rates compared to standard interactive ads. Black Friday provided a particularly compelling proof point, with IVA engagement lifting 15% versus the three previous TNF games.⁵

The lesson isn't about any single ad product, it's how streaming enables brands to meet audiences where they are and make it easy to act on interest. Brands are building interactive experiences that let audiences engage on their terms, with measurable results connecting upper-funnel awareness to lower-funnel conversion.

Amazon Marketing Cloud is making this connection even clearer. Advertisers can now leverage Amazon's shopping, browsing, and streaming signals alongside their own first-party data to build custom audiences, drive holistic measurement, and deliver actionable insights all in a privacy-safe environment.

The full-funnel opportunity extends beyond the game

Beyond in-game inventory, brands can extend their reach through sports-adjacent content including streaming highlights, creator programming, podcasts, and documentaries, reaching audiences who are twice as likely to stream Prime Video and three times as likely to own Fire TV. Through Amazon DSP, advertisers can also access nearly 1,000 out-of-market NBA games plus programmatic inventory across sports streaming channels and open internet sports deals. From awareness-building moments during live games to direct-response capabilities through interactive formats to post-event remarketing, streaming offers ways to connect with audiences across their decision journey, all within a single viewing experience that can be measured end-to-end.

Looking ahead

TNF's growth trajectory reflects how quickly audiences are shifting to streaming for premium content. With Amazon's sports portfolio expanding throughout 2026, the opportunity to reach engaged audiences at scale continues to grow. As audiences continue choosing streaming for live sports, the real opportunity isn't just reaching them, it's understanding their shopping journey like never before.

Sources

All 2025-26 viewership and audience insights from Nielsen Big Data+Panel (Nielsen panel-only for previous seasons) unless otherwise noted.

¹ EDO, Based on Google search rate. 2025 NFL regular season.

² TVision, US, 2026 NFL Wild card games.

³ EDO, Based on Google search rate. 2025.

⁴ Amazon internal data, US, 1/1/25 - 12/15/25

⁵ Amazon Internal Data, 9/1/25 - 1/10/26