• ESPN has Aired 3 of its 8 All-Time Most-Watched MNF Games This Season
• This Week, Monday Night Football was NFL’s Most-Watched Week 5 Game Across All Networks
• Chiefs-Jaguars up 40% Year-Over-Year, Easily ESPN’s Most-Watched Week 5 game in the MNF era
• Monday Night Football Up 29% Year-Over-Year

ESPN’s Week 5 matchup between the Chiefs and Jaguars (October 6, 8:15 p.m. ET) generated an audience of 22.3 million, continuing ESPN’s season-long trend of airing its most-watched Monday Night Football games since the franchise moved to the network in 2006 (more than 340 games). Now, five weeks into the season, ESPN has aired 3 of its Top 8 most-watched telecasts in that time period.

Across the entire NFL, Monday Night Football was the most-watched game in Week 5.

The Chiefs-Jaguars game ranks as ESPN’s sixth most-watched Monday Night Football game, joining Lions-Ravens in Week 3 (22,847,000 viewers) and Vikings-Bears in Week 1 (22,120,000 viewers) on the Top 8 list. Lions-Ravens remains fourth on the list, with Vikings-Bears now eighth.

Collectively, those three stand-alone Monday Night Football games have averaged 22.4 million viewers. Factoring in all seven Monday Night Football games this season (including two games in Weeks 2 and 4), ESPN is averaging 16.7 million viewers this season, up 29% from the same point and number of games during the 2024 season.

In addition to being one of ESPN’s most-watched Monday Night Football games, the Chiefs-Jaguars also serves as ESPN’s most-watched Week 5 game in its MNF era, and was up 40% compared to Week 5 last season (Saints vs. Chiefs). ESPN’s audience peaked at 25.4 million viewers during the Jaguars’ game-winning drive (11:00 – 11:15 p.m.).

Source: Nielsen Big Data + Panel