Ratings slipped, but viewership hit a four-year high for the 49ers’ ho-hum win over the Vikings.
Saturday’s Vikings-49ers NFC Divisional Round game averaged a 16.6 rating and 29.30 million viewers on NBC, marking the largest audience for the early Saturday Divisional Round window in four years (2016 Chiefs-Patriots: 31.50M).
San Francisco’s uneventful win, which peaked with 32.0 million viewers from 6:15-6:30 PM ET, declined 1% in ratings but increased 1% in viewership from Colts-Chiefs last year (16.8, 29.14M) and increased 7% and 8% respectively from Falcons-Eagles in 2018 (15.5, 27.07M).
Including a streaming audience of 757,000 viewers on the NFL and NBC digital platforms (+54%) — the best for an NFL game on NBC outside of the Super Bowl — the game averaged 30.1 million (+1%).
For the postseason, Vikings-49ers ranks fourth in ratings and fifth in viewership out of the six games played. As should be no surprise, the two least-watched games of the postseason have aired in the Saturday afternoon window, often the weakest of any playoff weekend.
Minneapolis-St. Paul led all markets Saturday afternoon with a 39.8 rating, followed by the Bay Area at a 33.2. Both markets averaged a 75 share, meaning three in four televisions in use were tuned to the game.
Milwaukee was the top neutral market with a 28.8/48, followed by Sacramento (27.9/65) and Kansas City (27.4/46).
[Nielsen estimates from NBC Sports PR 1.12]
