Even if NFL preseason games are treated by coaches and stars as—at best—dress rehearsals, fans have shown a hunger to watch. Last year’s nationally televised tune-ups averaged 2.2 million viewers, making the 2025 preseason the most-watched since 2018, according to the league. 

In the regular season, those audiences jump close to tenfold. Every NFL game has become a valuable media commodity, with individual matchups sold to streamers for $100 million or more. But the preseason remains relatively unclaimed, and therefore untamed, territory. 

While the NFL has grown into a national TV behemoth, its preseason strategy looks more like how MLB, the NBA and the NHL operate, with teams managing regional distribution, punctuated by a few national TV tilts. Add in ESPN’s recent acquisition of NFL Media assets and user confusion over the league’s remaining streaming service, and it’s clear to see why “Who will start under center for the Browns?” isn’t the only question football fans are asking this August. 

Teams handle their own preseason game broadcast rights in-market, and most ink deals with local over-the-air networks. Some of those networks stream the games on their digital platforms as well, while other teams deliver feeds directly to fans from their websites and apps. The Rams just announced their games will stream on new sports video hub Bzzr across California, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Australia and Mexico, in what Bzzr called a “first-of-its-kind” agreement.

The situation is also murky for those living outside their favorite team’s region. ESPN completed its takeover of NFL Media this offseason, but the league retained digital assets including NFL.com and its own streaming service, NFL+. For $6/month, viewers can watch all out-of-market live preseason action on NFL+, unless the game airs on a national network, as is the case Thursday night when ESPN covers Fernando Mendoza and the Las Vegas Raiders’ trip to play the Houston Texans. Fox, CBS and Prime Video each have their own national exclusive game, while NBC aired the Hall of Fame Game, drawing 7 million viewers. 

NFL Network, now owned by ESPN, has 19 more live preseason games, though those are still broadcast by teams’ local networks in their home regions. This year, an additional 12 games stream out-of-market on ESPN Unlimited, a $30/month service that comes included with most major cable subscriptions. 

That leaves only three games in Week 2 of the preseason that are NFL+-only out-of-market, with five such games in the final week of preseason. NFL+ Premium ($15/month) offers the ability to watch replays of both local and out-of-market games. 

Over the last year, the NFL app has maintained a 4.52 rating on the iOS store, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb. However, recent reviewers have complained about the access to games in the app. “Can’t watch preseason games I want to,” “It barely lets you watch any games,” and “Why am I paying for a service that doesn’t show the teams I want?,” three one-star reviews from Saturday read.

Additionally, NFL+ users had issues logging into and accessing their accounts for periods of Thursday and Saturday during the first week of the preseason. A person familiar with the problems said the league has addressed the snags.

The NFL is currently offering NFL+ for $40/year and NFL+ Premium for $80/year, with those promo rates available through Sept. 21. During the season, NFL+ delivers streams of live local and primetime games on mobile devices and NFL Network, while the higher-priced tier comes with game replays and NFL RedZone as well.

Other leagues are increasingly discussing centralizing their local media rights sales, with the possibility of bundling them together on a streaming service such as Amazon Prime Video, DAZN, ESPN, or YouTube. It’s unclear what kind of appetite media companies would have for what are essentially football scrimmages, though the audience for past preseason games—and ESPN’s growing inventory—suggest that Americans’ interest in the NFL should never be overlooked.

Last Thursday, Packers-Steelers on NFL Network drew more average viewers than Netflix’s Field of Dreams MLB game, according to Nielsen. Maybe the streamer should consider putting an NFL exhibition in a cornfield next summer.

(This has been corrected in the third-to-last paragraph to say the NFL+ promo rates are available through Sept. 21.)