The 2023 NFL season has generally been quite strong from a viewership perspective for Amazon’s Thursday Night Football broadcasts on Prime Video. The second season of Thursday night games exclusively on Prime Video has seen 25 percent year-over-year growth to date through 14 games, and 13 weeks of double-digit year-over-year growth. And the latest boost there came from the Los Angeles Rams’ 30-22 home win over the New Orleans Saints Thursday, which posted a lot of notable numbers:
The crucial @Saints–@RamsNFL clash on @NFLonPrime scored again with viewers, marking the 13th week of double-digit, year-over-year viewership growth this season for @PrimeVideo pic.twitter.com/gG0VfETJo5
— PrimeVideoSportsPR (@PrimeSportsPR) December 22, 2023
This came a week after the only 2023 TNF broadcast that didn’t post a year-over-year gain, the Las Vegas Raiders’ 63-21 blowout win over the Los Angeles Chargers. That one drew just 7.98 million viewers. But with a closer game this week, and with playoff implications for both teams, the ratings news was much better for Amazon.
The double-digit year-over-year increases now extending to 13 of 14 weeks are perhaps particularly notable. It can be tough to learn too much from any one week’s year-over-year increase, as ratings often highly depend on the teams playing and their particular performance on the season. But 13 out of 14 weeks is definitely a trend. And that’s suggesting that Thursday Night Football is establishing itself on Prime Video in a significant way, and becoming regular viewing for more and more fans on Thursdays.
And it’s doing so even more so if you go by Nielsen’s custom Integrated Live Streaming Report, which cites an average minute audience of 11.67 million viewers. That report, which works in Amazon data, is under review by the Media Rating Council and not presently accredited, and its methodology has taken criticism from other executives. But it’s worth passing on that Amazon says even more people are watching, as that certainly has implications for how they feel about broadcasting TNF going forward. Maybe even Bill Belichick will get on board with watching streaming NFL games on Thursdays at some point.
[PrimeSportsPR on Twitter]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.