What It Really Means to Need ‘Every Game’
There is not a one-size-fits-all pass for the NFL season. Rights are spread across broadcast TV, cable, and multiple streamers; and there are a handful of digital exclusives played every year as well. To witness every snap in 2025, you would need access to:
- Local Sunday windows on CBS and FOX
- Sunday Night Football over NBC
- Monday Night Football via ESPN/ABC
- Thursday Night Football exclusive to Prime Video
- Certain exclusives over Netflix and Peacock
- International and late-season flex games offered by NFL Network
- Out-of-market Sunday action provided through NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube
The league’s multiyear agreements with CBS, FOX, NBC, Disney (ESPN/ABC), Amazon, Netflix, and Google/YouTube — announced by the NFL — were designed to distribute inventory. Nielsen’s yearly rankings always have NFL telecasts on top of the American television leaderboard, ensuring that every distributor remains motivated to hold at least a part of the schedule.
- What It Really Means to Need ‘Every Game’
- The From-Scratch 2025 Estimate for Full NFL Access
- Per-Game Math and Context for the All-Games Price
- Things That Make the Price Move for Watching Everything
- Promotions and timing
- Annual vs. monthly pricing
- Over-the-air as a partial substitute
- Exclusive one-offs on streaming services
- A Pragmatic Course for Diehards Who Want Every Game
- Bottom Line on the Real Cost to Watch Every NFL Game
The From-Scratch 2025 Estimate for Full NFL Access
If you’re starting from zero and only subscribing when necessary, a reasonable plan might look like this: YouTube TV (for the major linear channels — so both CBS and FOX can be watched), with NFL Sunday Ticket as an add-on option; Prime Video to watch the Thursday game and one playoff contest; Netflix for the Christmas games; and one month of Peacock for what’s likely to be an exclusive. You’ll also need a month of ESPN+ if another exclusive returns.
Here is a cost build, grounded in current market rates and last season’s pricing as a guide:
- YouTube TV: around five months at approximately $72.99 a month ≈ $364.95
- NFL Sunday Ticket (add-on with YouTube TV): expect to pay around $399 (the middle of last season’s range for customers without student IDs)
- Amazon Prime Video: five months at roughly $14.99 per month ≈ $74.95
- Netflix (with ads) for December: ≈ $6.99
- The exclusive game window on Peacock Premium: ≈ $7.99
- ESPN+ (for when an exclusive international game lands here): ≈ $11.99 per month
Tally without ESPN+: about $853.87. With ESPN+: about $865.86. And that encompasses all the games, not just the regular season but also the postseason, and equals 285 games under the current format.
Per-Game Math and Context for the All-Games Price
So at about $854 to $866 you’re paying just a shade more than three dollars per game to watch all 285. That’s the clean, from-scratch figure for realistic month-to-month toggling, which carries no annual commitment. It presumes you cancel when you’re finished with a package, and that if at all possible you do not have overlapping months.
The exact number will be different for most households. Most people already subscribe to Prime Video or Netflix, so the incremental cost is lower. Others are Sunday Ticket returning customers or subscribe to a live TV bundle year-round, and that drives up costs. A house with no promos and a higher Sunday Ticket price could easily get over $900; a smart shopper who snags introductory promotions for YouTube TV or Sunday Ticket might fall closer to the mid-$700s.
Things That Make the Price Move for Watching Everything
Promotions and timing
It’s common for virtual MVPDs to offer intro deals. Lock in three months of discounted YouTube TV before jumping to the regular price for two months — and you net a $50-$100 discount on the season. Sunday Ticket has historically offered early-bird and student pricing on YouTube; those would materially change the math.
Annual vs. monthly pricing
Prime Video is cheaper a year than five monthly renewals, but only if you see the value in the service outside of football. Peacock also offers bundles with broadband or wireless plans, which could mean that the “one-month” strategy becomes effectively free.
Over-the-air as a partial substitute
An antenna will get you lots of Sunday and Sunday-night games for free in most markets (CBS, FOX, NBC). But you still have to figure out a pay TV pathway for ESPN’s Monday night slate and NFL Network. The antenna trick is amazing for casual fans, but it doesn’t take the place of Sunday Ticket or the streamers if you want every single game.
Exclusive one-offs on streaming services
Netflix’s Christmas games are exclusive to Netflix, and Thursday nights are exclusive to Prime Video. Peacock and ESPN+ have held at least a game apiece in recent seasons. Count on purchasing those months unless the league issues a carriage change.
A Pragmatic Course for Diehards Who Want Every Game
If all you care about is having everything, to answer an impossible question the most fail-safe setup would be YouTube TV plus NFL Sunday Ticket layered with Prime Video for the season and one month each of Netflix and Peacock.
If there’s an ESPN+ exclusive on the calendar, note an additional month there as well. Set reminders for the renewal dates and cancel the second that final whistle blows on each exclusive window.
Bottom Line on the Real Cost to Watch Every NFL Game
Bank on about $850 to $900 to see all of the NFL games in 2025, presuming that you manage subscriptions tightly and get midtier pricing for Sunday Ticket.
With aggressive promo hunting, you’re in the mid-$700s; with fewer deals or pricier tiers, that total will creep over $1,000. The fragmentation is the price of certainty — watching every game requires access to almost every platform that comes into contact with the NFL.
