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40 of 50 most-watched sporting events in 2018 were NFL games

Super Bowl LII - Philadelphia Eagles v New England Patriots

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - FEBRUARY 04: Nelson Agholor #13 of the Philadelphia Eagles catches a pass against the New England Patriots during Super Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium on February 4, 2018 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

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The NFL dominated the American sports television landscape in 2018.

Of the 50 most-watched sporting events in 2018, 40 were NFL games, according to Sports Media Watch.

That includes the seven most-watched events of the year: The Super Bowl, the two conference championship games, two divisional playoff games, a wild card game and the annual Thanksgiving game in Dallas. No. 8 was the college football national championship game, No. 9 was the Winter Olympics opening ceremony and No. 10 was another NFL divisional playoff game.

To give an indication of the gap between the NFL and the other major sporting events, the 40th most-watched NFL game, the Rams-Bears Sunday night game, had 19.39 million viewers. The most-watched NBA game, Game 2 of the NBA Finals, had 18.47 million viewers. The most-watched baseball game, Game 5 of the World Series, had 17.64 million viewers. (Football also easily beats basketball on the college level; the college basketball national championship game had 15.97 million viewers, while there were six college football games that had more than 16 million viewers.)

All 50 of the most-watched events were football games or Olympics broadcasts.