THE NFL鈥檚 blockbuster regular season rolled straight into wild-card weekend, and the audiences followed.
Fox opened on Saturday with the Rams鈥 34-31 victory over the Panthers drawing 28 million viewers, up 7% over last year in the same time slot for the biggest Saturday afternoon wild-card audience on any network since 2011, Front Office Sports reported.
Prime Video then shattered streaming records as the Bears鈥 31-27 win over the Packers averaged 31.6 million, which is Amazon鈥檚 largest NFL audience by far and the most-watched exclusively streamed game in league history, topping Netflix鈥檚 late-afternoon Christmas matchup (27.5 million). The figure was 43% higher than last year鈥檚 streaming wild-card game on Amazon.
Sunday kept the surge going. CBS鈥 early window featuring the Bills鈥 27-24 win over the Jaguars delivered 32.7 million viewers, the best early Sunday wild-card number on record for any network.
Fox鈥檚 late game, the 49ers鈥 23-19 victory over the defending champion Eagles, led the entire weekend at 41 million for Fox鈥檚 biggest wild-card audience since 2015. It marked a 14% jump over the comparable slot a year ago.
NBC鈥檚 primetime game, with the Patriots ousting the Chargers, 16-3, averaged 28.9 million, narrowly behind last year鈥檚 comparable game but still the most-watched Sunday night broadcast of any kind since last February鈥檚 Super Bowl.
ESPN鈥檚 numbers for the Texans鈥 30-6 win over the Steelers on Monday night will arrive on Wednesday.
The early playoff spike aligns with the league鈥檚 regular-season average of 18.7 million viewers per game, the second highest since 1989, highlighting how every rights holder experienced growth this year, from major broadcasters to streamers. 鈥 Reuters
