How long does the average NFL football game last? Whether you’re a football fan who is trying to plan out your day or someone who can’t wait for the game to be over so you can take back the remote, we’ve got you covered.
NFL and NCAA games are 60 minutes, consisting of four 15-minute quarters. However, anyone who has watched football before knows that with timeouts, reviews, commercials, halftime, and more, it takes significantly longer than an hour to complete a game. Let’s examine how long it typically takes to finish an NFL and NCAA game.
How Long Is a Football Game?
The average NFL game reportedly takes three hours and 12 minutes to complete. In contrast, the average length of a college football game is three hours and 24 minutes.
If you’re curious about the average length of the Super Bowl broadcast over the last 20 years, it takes roughly three-and-a-half hours. With more commercial breaks and a lengthy halftime show, it’s no surprise that it’s a bit longer than a typical regular-season game or playoff matchup.
How Long Is Halftime of a Football Game?
The length of halftime also varies depending on if it’s an NFL or NCAA game. In the NFL, the average halftime lasts 12 minutes. Meanwhile, in college football, halftime is 20 minutes, which helps explain why the average NCAA game takes 12 minutes longer.
As previously mentioned, the Super Bowl halftime show is significantly longer and a huge draw for fans, so it typically lasts anywhere from 20-to-30 minutes.
How Much Live Action Is There Throughout an NFL Game?
Throughout the three-plus hours that you’re watching an NFL game, there is generally just 15-to-20 minutes of live action. The average NFL contest has roughly 18 minutes of actual gameplay, with more than 100 plays jammed into those 18 minutes. This average has increased, as there were just 11 minutes of live action back in 2010, per the Wall Street Journal.
How can a 60-minute game that takes three hours to complete have just 18 minutes of actual football? Well, it’s due to the NFL’s rules and clock, with plenty of stoppages, replays, timeouts, commercials, etc.
Of the major sports, football has the least active time. Baseball is the closest at just over 20 minutes. Meanwhile, the NBA, NHL, and English Premier League all have over 45 minutes of live action on average.
However, it is somewhat unfair to judge the NFL harshly on this. Much of what happens before the snap is as important as what happens after the snap. The chess match of an NFL game is played between the offense and defense before the ball reaches the quarterback’s hands. In that sense, football is very different from a sport like basketball or soccer.
How Many Commercials Are There During Football Games?
On average, around 25% of the NFL broadcast is commercials. In three hours, that ends up being approximately 45 minutes of advertisements.
There are around 15-to-25 commercials per quarter, adding up to as many as 100+ commercials in total during a football game.
