It was not much of a game, but Colts-Chiefs still delivered a multi-year high in the ratings.
Saturday’s Colts-Chiefs AFC Divisional Round game delivered a 16.8 rating and 29.1 million viewers on NBC — up 8% in ratings and viewership from last year (Falcons-Eagles: 15.5, 27.1M) and up 4% and 2% respectively from 2017 on FOX (Seahawks-Falcons: 16.2, 28.7M).
The Chiefs’ uneventful win, which peaked with 32.0 million viewers from 7:30 PM ET through the conclusion, ranks as the highest rated and most-watched Saturday afternoon Divisional Round game since 2016 on CBS (Chiefs-Patriots: 18.1, 31.5M).
Through Saturday, three of six NFL playoff games have hit multi-year highs.
The game had a streaming audience of 493,000, a Divisional Round record for NBC Sports’ digital platforms. Including that audience, the game had 29.6 million.
Buoyed by its largest Wild Card audience on record last weekend, NBC averaged 33.1 million viewers for NFL playoff coverage this year (including streaming) — up 31% from last year (25.2M) and its highest average since resuming NFL coverage in 2006.
Kansas City led all markets Saturday with a 56.1 rating, up 2% from the Chiefs’ previous Divisional Round game in 2017 (55.2). The 2017 game aired on NBC on a Sunday night.
Indianapolis ranked second (44.4), with New Orleans ranking as the top neutral market (29.9). A pair of Virginia markets — Richmond (27.4) and Norfolk (26.4) — rounded out the top five.
[Numbers from NBC Sports PR 1.13]
