The NFL crossed the rare 50 million viewer threshold for the latest chapter of the Chiefs-Bills rivalry.
Sunday’s Chiefs-Bills AFC Divisional Round playoff game averaged a 24.2 rating and 50.39 million viewers on CBS, marking the largest NFL audience on record outside of the Super Bowl and conference championship games. The previous mark was 48.52 million for a Packers-Cowboys Divisional Round game on FOX in 2017.
Keep in mind that out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen final nationals prior to 2020 (or measured at all prior to 2016), meaning that any number of games from past playoffs would likely have done better all things being equal. Per a source, the 2017 Packers-Cowboys game would have averaged 54.17 million including out-of-home (which was being tracked at the time, but not included in the final nationals).
The Chiefs’ win, which peaked with 56.25 million viewers, also ranks as the highest rated NFL game — again excluding the Super Bowl and conference title games — since the aforementioned Packers-Cowboys game (26.1). Out-of-home viewing is by definition not included in the household rating.
Ratings increased 11% and viewership 10% from Cowboys-49ers on FOX in the same window last year (21.8, 45.66M). Excluding news events, it ranks as one of just 12 non-Super Bowl television programs to top the 50 million viewer threshold since the series finale of NBC’s “Friends” in 2004 (52.2M). The NFL playoffs accounts for all 12, though the previous 11 were all AFC or NFC Championship games.
As goes without saying, Chiefs-Bills delivered the largest audience of the NFL season, surpassing the previous high of 41.76 million for Commanders-Cowboys on CBS Thanksgiving Day.
Earlier Sunday, the Buccaneers-Lions NFC Divisional Round game averaged an 18.6 and 37.18 million across NBC (18.6, 37.11M) and Universo (0.04, 71K) — down from Bengals-Bills on CBS in the same window last year (20.1, 39.32M). Including a streaming audience of 3.3 million measured by Adobe Analytics, the game averaged 40.5 million — up from last year and the highest for an early Sunday Divisional Round game since Cowboys-Packers on FOX in 2015 (44.38M). (As NBC is the only network whose streaming viewership is not tracked by Nielsen, the network’s position is that the combined Nielsen/Adobe figure is comparable to the other networks’ Nielsen-only figures.)
The Lions’ historic win, which peaked with 49.1 million from 6 PM ET through the conclusion, was the most-watched Divisional Round game on NBC since Chiefs-Oilers averaged 41.08 million in 1994 (18 total telecasts).
