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- Viewership numbers for the 2022 NFL Pro Bowl have arrived and wow are they awful.
- Nobody was interested in watching this year’s exhibition, clearly.
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NFL fans have never really had a huge interest in the Pro Bowl, and it’s no secret that the interest level has essentially been dropping year after year. The TV ratings from this year’s game prove just that.
The Pro Bowl has never been ‘real football’ and with that, it’s tough for people to invest a few hours to watch football players essentially play a game of tag. Some of you reading this may legitimately call yourself NFL fans, but didn’t even know the Pro Bowl took place this past weekend.
According to My Sports Update, Sunday’s Pro Bowl drew just 6.69 million viewers across all platforms. That embarrassingly low number makes the 2022 Pro Bowl the least-watched since 2006.
Sunday's Pro Bowl drew 6.69 million viewers across all platforms – marking the smallest audience for the game since 2006.
Still big number for a game everyone complains about – but down from recent years. Will be interesting to see if the league considers some changes.
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) February 8, 2022
For comparison, the 2021 NBA All-Star Game, which has seen a big-time drop in viewers over the years, brought in 6.80 million viewers a year ago.
The NFL has tried to raise the hype around the Pro Bowl with different skill competitions leading up to the game, but whatever they’re doing clearly isn’t working. It’s safe to say it’s a result of a stale product and today’s audience simply not caring about a truly meaningless game.