Ratings hit a three-year high for the NFL Kickoff Game.
Thursday’s Packers-Bears NFL Kickoff Game averaged a 12.8 rating and 22.03 million viewers on NBC, marking the highest rated and most-watched season opener in three years (2016 Panthers-Broncos: 14.6, 25.19M).
Green Bay’s win, which peaked with 23.9 million viewers from 9:15-9:30 PM ET, snapped a three-year streak of declines for the Kickoff Game. Ratings increased 14% and viewership 16% from Falcons-Eagles last year, which started late due to a weather delay (11.2, 18.98M), and 2% and 1% respectively from 2017 (Chiefs-Patriots: 12.6, 21.80M).
Compared to last year’s Week 1 Bears-Packers game, which aired in NBC’s Sunday Night Football window, ratings increased 2% (from 12.5), but viewership fell a fraction of a percent (vs. 22.12M).
The game had an additional streaming audience of 627,000 on NBC Sports’ digital platforms (+10%), bringing the total audience up to 22.7 million (+16%).
Despite the three-year high, this year’s Kickoff Game was the third-least watched in a decade. The game topped 25 million viewers in six of seven years from 2010-16. Overall, it ranks eighth out of the 18 total Kickoff games dating back to 2002.
The Kickoff Game ranks as the highest rated and most-watched sporting event since the Super Bowl, topping the college basketball national championship (UVA-Texas Tech: 11.6, 19.63M), the clinching game of the NBA Finals (Raptors-Warriors Game 6: 10.7, 18.76M), and the FIFA Women’s World Cup Final (16.87M).
It should be noted that it finished behind the college football national championship (Clemson-Alabama: 13.8, 25.28M), after beating that game in the overnights.
[Nielsen estimates from NBC, NBC PR 9.6]
