The NFL playoffs have gotten off to a sluggish start in the ratings, though the late afternoon Sunday window once again proved its dominance during the Wild Card round.
The Philadelphia Eagles’ win over the Green Bay Packers turned in 35.9 million viewers on Fox, making it the most-watched Wild Card game of the week. It was Fox’s second-best Wild Card round audience since 2017 when the network drew 39.3 million for a Giants-Packers game. Sunday’s game peaked at 39.5 million in the 7 p.m. ET quarter-hour.
Fly, Eagles Fly 🎶
On Sunday, @NFLonFOX delivered the most-watched telecast of the week on any network as the @Eagles punched their ticket to the NFC Divisional Round. pic.twitter.com/o1ltkWXWr6
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) January 14, 2025
According to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, Packers-Eagles was down 11% from Fox’s late afternoon Sunday window game last year which featured the Dallas Cowboys taking on the Packers (40.2 million viewers). Versus two years ago without the Cowboys, viewership for the game increased by 8%.
Per Lewis, the game delivered the third-largest Wild Card audience since 2019 behind the aforementioned Cowboys-Packers game and a Cowboys-49ers game in 2022.
Wild Card weekend also featured the first-ever playoff game to air exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video. Saturday’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens averaged 22.1 million viewers per CNBC’s Alex Sherman. That figure is down slightly from last year’s first NFL playoff streaming exclusive on Peacock, a game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins that averaged 23.0 million viewers.
Despite Prime Video’s larger subscriber base, viewership for the game was likely hurt by its noncompetitive nature. The Ravens went into halftime with a 21-0 lead.
The Nielsen numbers are in: Prime Video averaged 22.07 million viewers on Saturday night for Ravens/Steelers.
For context, Peacock last year averaged 23.0 million viewers.
Netflix Xmas games averaged 26.5M US viewers
— Alex Sherman (@sherman4949) January 14, 2025
Sunday night’s game between the Washington Commanders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers averaged 26.2 million viewers according to Douglas Pucci of Programming Insider. NBC, which adds streaming numbers from Adobe Analytics into its Nielsen measurements, tabs the game at 29 million viewers.
— NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) January 14, 2025
By either measurement, viewership was down 19% versus last year’s game between the Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions. Per Lewis, it’s the least-watched Sunday night Wild Card game since the playoffs expanded to 14 teams.
Viewership figures for ESPN’s Monday night telecast and CBS’ two afternoon Wild Card games were not immediately available.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.