Saturday night's AFC wild-card playoff game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs made history as the most-watched event on a streaming service. The game, which aired on Peacock, NFL+, and NBC affiliates in Kansas City and Miami, drew an average of 23 million viewers, according to Nielsen. The total reach of the game was reported to be 27.6 million.
This was the first NFL playoff game to be behind a paywall, as fans had to subscribe and pay for a Peacock subscription, starting at $5.99, in order to watch the game. This move by the league received mixed reactions from fans, with some expressing their frustration. However, it did not deter viewership, as the average number of viewers easily surpassed the previous record of 15.3 million for a game between the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys on Amazon Prime Video.
The game's viewership also exceeded the audiences for Saturday night wild-card playoff games shown on NBC in the past few years. Last year's first-round playoff game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Jacksonville Jaguars had an average of 20.61 million viewers. The high viewership numbers for the Dolphins-Chiefs game indicate a potential trend of more playoff matchups being shown on streaming services in the future.
NBCUniversal reportedly paid $110 million for the rights to broadcast the game. Despite the final score not being close, the game had the unique aspect of being one of the coldest in NFL history, which likely added to the intrigue. It was also notable that singer Taylor Swift was in attendance to support her boyfriend, Travis Kelce.
Hans Schroeder, the NFL's executive vice president of media distribution, stated that viewership would be a significant factor in determining whether future wild-card games would continue to be exclusively streamed. Under the NFL's contract, each of its four broadcast partners (NBC, CBS, Fox, and ESPN/ABC) is guaranteed at least one wild-card game. The remaining two games will rotate among NBC, CBS, and Fox, while the other one is likely to be up for bid each year. This means that platforms like Peacock, Paramount+, Amazon, or ESPN+ could potentially be in the running to stream these games in the future.
Overall, the record-breaking viewership of the AFC wild-card playoff game between the Dolphins and Chiefs on Peacock demonstrates the increasing popularity and viability of streaming services for live sports events. As more fans embrace streaming platforms, the landscape of sports broadcasting may continue to evolve, creating new opportunities for both viewers and media distributors alike.
