The first NFL playoff game on Amazon Prime Video fell just short of last year’s comparable Peacock exclusive.
Saturday’s Steelers-Ravens NFL playoff game averaged a 9.65 rating and 22.07 million viewers across Amazon Prime Video and local affiliates in the home markets, up 5% in ratings but down 3% in viewership from Dolphins-Chiefs on Peacock and local affiliates last year (9.2, 22.86M). Compared to Chargers-Jaguars on NBC two years ago, ratings fell 8% but viewership increased 7% from 20.61 million.
The Ravens’ easy win, which peaked with 24.66 million in the 9 PM ET quarter-hour, unsurprisingly delivered the largest audience ever to watch an event on Prime Video. The streamer had not previously carried an NFL playoff game. The previous high was 17.29 million for a Packers-Lions Thursday Night Football game last month.
While it was only the fourth most-watched streaming-exclusive NFL game — behind Dolphins-Chiefs last year and the two Christmas Day NFL games on Netflix this season — it was the highest rated ever.
As may go without saying, even the most-watched NFL games on a streaming service will generally trail games on broadcast television. For the second-straight year, the streaming-exclusive game was the least-watched of Wild Card weekend. Every other game averaged at least 25 million. (Some of that might be attributable to the Saturday night window, which has been the least-watched of Wild Card weekend for three straight years — including one when it aired on NBC.)
Overall, four of six Wild Card weekend windows declined from last year, the exceptions being the two CBS games.
The last time the Steelers and Ravens met in the playoffs — in the same Saturday night Wild Card window a decade ago — the matchup drew 27.94 million on NBC. (Nielsen was not yet tracking out-of-home viewing in its viewership estimates.)
