A thriller between two of the NFL’s traditional powers delivered a historic Saturday night audience on FOX.
Saturday’s Packers-49ers NFC Divisional Round game averaged 37.5 million viewers, per Nielsen fast-nationals, marking the largest Saturday television audience on any network in 30 years — since the Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding-fueled 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics on CBS. The previous high was 36.9 million for the same 49ers-Packers matchup in the Divisional Round two years ago.
Keep in mind that out-of-home viewing was not tracked in Nielsen final nationals prior to 2020 (or measured at all prior to 2016). A number of Saturday games from playoffs past — including Ravens-Broncos in 2013 (35.28M), Saints-49ers in 2012 (35.60M), and even a New Year’s Eve Chiefs-Dolphins Wild Card game in 1994 (33.58M) — would almost certainly rank higher all things being equal.
Saturday is historically the least-watched night of the week and thus features few television programs of any consequence.
The 49ers’ comeback win, which peaked with 40.9 million viewers from 11-11:15 PM ET, increased 31% from Giants-Eagles in the same Saturday night window last year (28.64M). Entering Sunday, it ranked third for the season among NFL games behind Packers-Cowboys in the Wild Card round (40.16M) and Commanders-Cowboys on Thanksgiving (41.76M).
Green Bay has played in three of the top four games so far this season, with their Thanksgiving matchup with Detroit ranking fourth (33.70M).
In Saturday’s early window, Texans-Ravens averaged a combined 31.76 million across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, again per Nielsen fast-nationals — trailing only Jaguars-Chiefs on NBC last year (32.3M) as the most-watched early Saturday Divisional Round game since 2015 (Ravens-Patriots: 34.05M). The first ever Divisional Round game on ESPN/ABC, the Ravens’ blowout win delivered the networks’ largest NFL audience since Super Bowl 40.
Excluding the Super Bowl, Texans-Ravens was the most-watched NFL game on ESPN/ABC since a Chiefs-Dolphins Wild Card game on New Year’s Eve 1994 (33.58M). Overall, it ranks fourth among ESPN/ABC games dating back to the 1991 season, trailing another December 1994 game (49ers-Vikings: 32.01M) and Cowboys-Eagles in 1992 (32.98M). All of those games aired on ABC alone.
(Nielsen estimates from Fox Sports)
