On Thursday, the Dallas Cowboys handled the New York Giants in a game that wasn’t overly thrilling on paper before the game or on the field during it. But regardless, Amazon reaped the benefits of the typically impressive audience that comes along with a nationally televised Cowboys game.
Even though neither team came into the game lighting the world on fire with a pair of 1-2 records on the year, the game brought in an average of 16.22 million viewers. That ranks as the highest viewership to date for the network’s Thursday Night Football broadcasts. The broadcast peaked at 18.10 million viewers, which is also a TNF record for Prime Video.
🚀A historic evening for @NFLonPrime!
Last night’s @dallascowboys–@Giants game set the record for the most-watched TNF on @PrimeVideo matchup ever, and is the most-streamed @NFL
regular-season game in history! 🚀 🏈 pic.twitter.com/hxyOFymYoD— PrimeVideoSportsPR (@PrimeSportsPR) September 27, 2024
Perhaps predictably, this overtook another Dallas Cowboys game. That was in Week 13 of last season against the Seattle Seahawks, which averaged 15.3 million viewers.
Before the season, TNF play-by-play voice Al Michaels lauded the schedule the network received for the 2024-25 NFL season. And thus far, it seems like the product is indeed set for another year of growth.
Not only did this year’s Week 4 game see an increase of 20 percent in viewership over last year’s comparable TNF game, but it also continues a significant year-over-year advantage over last year through three weeks. Thus far, TNF games have averaged 14.88 million total viewers, compared to just a season average of just 11.86 million last year.
Amazon is far from the only network seeing a surge in ratings thus far this year. Traditional NFL broadcasts on TV (ESPN, ABC, Fox, NBC, and CBS) have seen the highest NFL viewership numbers since 2015 through three weeks of the season.
Regardless, Amazon’s success from a ratings perspective this year further reinforces the fact that their model as a streaming service is working. And that should be promising for platforms like Netflix and NBCUniversal’s Peacock as they continue to expand their NFL coverage in the future.
