The structural, electrical and magnetic properties of Ni-doped ZnO films with different Ni concentrations (x = 0–0.11, x: Ni concentration) and thicknesses (d = 15–330 nm, d: film thickness) prepared by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering have been systematically investigated. The structural characterizations indicate that Ni ions in the 2+ valence state, uniformly distributed in the film, almost substitute for the Zn ions when x ⩽ 0.07, whereas when x increases up to 0.11, a second phase Ni is formed. Room temperature (RT) ferromagnetism (FM) has been observed for all the Ni-doped ZnO wurtzite films. The saturated magnetization varies drastically with the Ni concentration and the film thickness. A large magnetic moment of 2.80 μB/Ni is obtained in the 15 nm thick Zn0.96Ni0.04O film at RT. The results show that the FM observed is intrinsic for Ni-doped ZnO films and can be explained in terms of the bound magnetic polaron mechanism based on the presence of defects. In addition, the Ni precipitates owing to the excessive doping of Ni in ZnO, as an extrinsic origin, also contribute to the ferromagnetic properties in highly doped samples.