What do you get when you put together two of the top quarterbacks in the NFL, a budding rivalry, and a win-or-go-home playoff game on Sunday night primetime?
A lot of people watching. A record number of people.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ thrilling 27-24 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, Jan. 21 saw an average of 50.39 million viewers, making it the most-watched NFL Divisional Playoff game in history, CBS Sports announced on Tuesday.
The game is up 10% over the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers Divisional game from last season that aired during the same period, and averaged nearly two million viewers more than the 2017 Cowboys versus Green Bay Packers game that held the previous record (48.52 million).
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The back-and-forth game that saw five lead changes peaked at 56.25 million viewers.
The game didn’t feature the Cowboys — who always bring in viewership across the country — but it had today’s face of the league Patrick Mahomes against arguably his most prominent foil in Josh Allen.
This was the third match-up between Mahomes and Allen in the playoffs — and many remember the infamous overtime game from 2022 when Mahomes and the Chiefs were able to score in 13 seconds to send the game into overtime when they ultimately would win.
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That game created the added buzz for this rivalry that parlayed into this record-breaking night.
It shouldn’t be dismissed that Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce had his girlfriend Taylor Swift in the crowd. Though his brother, Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, was the celebrity fan that really stole the show — and social media — after his shirtless roar when Travis Kelce scored a touchdown.
All the elements were certainly in the favor of the NFL and CBS Sports, leading them to a historic night.
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