Seven seconds were left when Dallas tied it. Then Lamar Jackson and Zay Flowers helped move Baltimore into range, and Tyler Loop booted a 56-yard field goal as time expired. The Ravens beat the Cowboys 34-31 at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, and a lot of people watched it happen.
CBS said the game averaged 24.9 million viewers, the most-watched international NFL game on record. The audience rose above 30 million as Loop lined up the kick, according to the Associated Press.
The old marks were well behind. The Week 1 game between the 49ers and Rams in Melbourne averaged 18.5 million viewers on Netflix, and last year’s Chargers-Chiefs game in Brazil drew the same average on YouTube, the AP reported.
A Sunday slot, and a first for Rio
Kickoff came at 4:25 p.m. ET on CBS, with streaming on Paramount+ and NFL+. That is an easy Sunday afternoon for US viewers, unlike an early-morning European broadcast.
It was also the NFL’s first regular-season game at the Maracanã. The two earlier Brazil games were in São Paulo. The league has committed to at least three regular-season games in Rio over five years, and this season has a record nine international games across four continents and seven countries. By comparison, the six international games on NFL Network in 2025 averaged 6.2 million viewers.
The matchup helped. Jackson, Dak Prescott, Derrick Henry and CeeDee Lamb gave viewers plenty of famous names. The game never settled: Baltimore erased an early Dallas lead, the Cowboys took control back, and the Ravens had to answer again at the end.
