The Kansas City Chiefs are winning on the field and off — at least when it comes to record-setting NFL TV audiences.
CBS (US)'s coverage of the Kansas City Chiefs' 32-29 win over the Buffalo Bills in the 6:30 p.m. ET window on Jan. 26 averaged 57.4 million viewers, according to fast national data from Nielsen Holdings PLC. The delivery ranks as the most-watched American Football Conference championship game to date. It surpasses the 55.5 million who saw Kansas City triumph over the Baltimore Ravens 17-10 in the corresponding contest last season, which aired in the 3 p.m. ET window.
Chiefs-Bills also stands as the NFL's third-most-watched semifinal encounter, behind 57.9 million for New Orleans Saints-Minnesota Vikings in the 2010 National Football Conference championship game and the 57.6 million who saw the New York Giants-San Francisco 49ers in the 2012 NFC title tilt. Both of those games aired on FOX (US), long before Nielsen began including out-of-home viewing in its measurements and before linear TV audiences began splintering amid the rise of streaming.
As to the NFC Championship, the Philadelphia Eagles' 55-23 win over the Washington Commanders in the 3 p.m. ET window averaged 44.2 million on FOX, FOX Deportes (US) and various digital outlets. This was down 22% from 56.7 million viewers for the San Francisco 49ers-Detroit Lions in the NFC title tilt the prior year, which ran in the 6:30 p.m. window.
Eagles-Commanders marked the lowest NFC title game audience tally since the 43.9 million viewers for San Francisco-Green Bay in 2020, the last year before Nielsen began including out-of-home data in its viewership estimates,
Under their current NFL rights deals, CBS and FOX alternate their respective annual presentations of the AFC and NFC championship games in the afternoon and prime-time windows. In many cases, the later game, depending on the matchup, generates the larger viewing audience.
Heading into the Feb. 9 Super Bowl between Kansas City and Philadelphia in New Orleans — a rematch of the 2023 NFL championship game — nine of the 12 playoff games sustained audience declines when gauged against viewership from the NFL's 2024 postseason. All six NFC games declined while three of the AFC contests scored audience drops.
In the 2023 Super Bowl, the Chiefs edged the Eagles 38-35, drawing an audience 115.1 million across FOX, FOX Deportes and digital outlets. Last year's game, which saw Kansas defend its title with an overtime win over the 49ers, drew 123.7 million viewers across CBS, Nickelodeon, TelevisaUnivision Inc.'s Univision (US), streamers Paramount+ and ViX, and NFL digital platforms, according to data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. Paramount Global said the game was the most-watched telecast in US history.
As Kansas City looks for an unprecedented Super Bowl-era threepeat, FOX and FOX Deportes will be joined by Fox Corp.'s free-ad supported platform Tubi streaming its first major live sporting event. Additionally, Telemundo (US) will also televise the game in Spanish, with the contest also available via FOX and NFL digital outlets.
Beyond the addition of Tubi and Telemundo to the Super Bowl's reach, the audience for the NFL championship could benefit as Nielsen expands its out-of-home measurement system beyond the current 44 media markets that cover 65% of the nation's viewing markets. Nielsen is expected to bolster its out-of-home system, before Super Bowl Sunday, to approximate full TV household coverage across the US.
Live sports continues to play a critical role for network owners and advertisers. As content increasingly appears across linear, mobile, digital, desktop social and connected TV screens, sports has shown an ability to aggregate large audiences — particularly on linear networks such as CBS and FOX.