Pro Bowl ratings hit new record low

The 2025 Pro Bowl was not a ratings hit for the NFL. According to Front Office Sports, this year’s Pro Bowl (also known as the Pro Bowl Games), averaged just 4.7 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, and Disney XD. It’s the lowest audience ever for the all-star game (excluding the COVID year).

The ratings for the 2025 Pro Bowl dropped 18 percent from last year as 5.75 million fans watched the 2024 game. In 2023, the first year of the flag football format, 6.2 million viewers watched the NFL’s best players in action.

It’s clear that fans are not getting into the flag football format despite the sport growing in popularity. The NFL has made changes to the Pro Bowl in recent years to increase fan interest, including moving the game from Hawaii to Orlando to Vegas and back to Orlando.

In May 2022, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said changes to the Pro Bowl needed to be made. “I think the conclusion was that the game itself, doesn’t work,” Goodell said. “And that we needed to find a different way to celebrate our players. Celebrate the fact that, these being our Pro Bowler players, the best players in our league, and give them an opportunity to celebrate that with our fans. We talked an awful lot about some of the events around the Pro Bowl that are really extremely popular, whether it’s the quarterback challenge or some of the other events, so those are things that we’ll probably build on.”

More on the Pro Bowl and the changes it has been through

Later in the year, the NFL announced its all-star game will no longer feature a tackle football game as it has been replaced by flag football. “We’ve received invaluable feedback from players, teams and fans about reimagining the Pro Bowl, and as a result, we’re thrilled to use The Pro Bowl Games as a platform to spotlight Flag football as an integral part of the sport’s future while also introducing fun, new forms of competition and entertainment that will bring our players, their families and fans closer than ever before,” Peter O’Reilly, NFL EVP of club business and league events, said in a statement. 

In this year’s flag football game, the NFC defeated the AFC 56-50. Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff was named Offensive MVP after completing 10 of his 11 passes for 126 yards and three touchdowns.