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Bills-Vikings draws 21.7M viewers, ESPN’s most-watched Week 9 game ever

Inglewood, CA - October 12, 2026 - SoFi Stadium: Josh Allen (17) of the Buffalo Bills during a regular season Monday Night Football game. (Photo by Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images)

Press Release

November 11, 2026

Author

Lily Blum

Contact(s)

Danny Chi (Danny.C.Chi@espn.com)
Lily Blum (Lily.Blum@espn.com)
Michael Skarka (Michael.Skarka@espn.com)

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Monday Night Football’s Week 9 matchup between the Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings drew 21.7M viewers across ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and NFL+, making it the most-watched Week 9 Monday Night Football game of the ESPN era (2006-present).

Complementing the traditional telecast, MNF Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show (ESPN2) and MNF Playbook with Next Gen Stats (NFL Network) combined to average more than 900K viewers, peaking just before halftime with a combined 1.1M viewers.

Nine weeks into ESPN’s Super Bowl LXI season, Monday Night Football is averaging 19 million viewers, up 24% from the same point in the 2025 season.

Leading into the game, Monday Night Countdown averaged 1.8M viewers across ESPN and NFL Network, up 30% from Week 9 in 2025. Season to date, the pregame show is averaging 25% more viewers than at the same point last season.

Source: Nielsen Big Data + Panel

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