Viewing figures for the opening weekend of the NFL playoffs fell by 9.3% in comparison to the previous year, marking a more substantial dip than that experienced during the regular season.
The NFL reported, along with data from Nielsen, that the six wild-card round contests drew an average of 28.3 million viewers across both television and online platforms, down from the 31.2 million recorded last year.
The two games held on Saturday maintained consistent viewership, whereas the matches on Sunday and Monday demonstrated a noticeable decrease in audience numbers.
A significant observation from this weekend is the growing familiarity of audiences with the shift to streaming services for some games. The Baltimore Ravens achieved a 28-14 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, averaging 22.07 million viewers on Amazon Prime Video. This figure set a record for the most-watched game on the streaming platform, outperforming the previous record of 17.29 million viewers for the December 5 matchup between the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers.
However, this represents a 3% decline from last year’s average of 23 million viewers on Peacock during the Miami-Kansas City game.
The highest viewed game of the weekend was the Philadelphia Eagles’ 22-10 win against the Green Bay Packers on Fox, which attracted an average of 35.6 million viewers in the Sunday late afternoon time slot. Even so, this figure reflects an 11% drop compared to the Packers-Cowboys game that aired at a similar time last season.
The most thrilling match of the wild-card round was Washington’s 23-20 comeback victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which averaged 29 million viewers on NBC. This was down 19% from the last year’s Rams-Lions encounter.
In Saturday’s initial game on CBS, Houston triumphed 32-12 over the Los Angeles Chargers, averaging 25.6 million viewers, which is only a 1% decline from last year’s Browns-Texans matchup shown on NBC.
Sunday’s first game featured the Buffalo Bills’ decisive 31-7 win against Denver, averaging 31.1 million viewers on CBS, identical to the viewership for last year’s Steelers-Bills game, which was postponed until Monday due to weather conditions.
The Los Angeles Rams’ 27-9 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night earned an average of 25.3 million viewers on ESPN and ABC, which is down 13% compared to last year’s Eagles-Buccaneers game.
During the regular season, the league averaged 17.5 million viewers. Although this figure ranks as the sixth-highest since 1995, it still indicates a 2% decline from the previous year.
Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” experienced a boost of 11% in viewership, while “Monday Night Football” on ESPN and ABC saw a 14% drop. The decrease in viewership for “Monday Night Football” was partially attributed to three fewer simulcasts on ABC this time around.
