Nearly 32 million people tuned in to witness Lamar Jackson’s dominant performance in the Baltimore Ravens’ 34-10 win over the Houston Texans on Saturday night, making it the most-watched NFL game in ESPN history, according to a company news release. The game was aired on ESPN, ABC, ESPN+ & ESPN Deportes.
The audience of 31.8 million viewers — which swelled to a peak of 36.2 million in the third quarter — surpassed the company’s record of 31.2 million viewers, which was set on Jan. 16, 2023, when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2023 wild-card round.
By Richard Deitsch and Mark Puleo
ESPN has been broadcasting NFL games since 1987 and has seen six of its seven most-viewed game broadcasts come in the past two seasons. The company’s “Monday Night Football” broadcasts also had a record-breaking 2023 season, with its three most-viewed MNF games all occurring in November and December 2023.
According to ESPN, the Texans-Ravens game bested the NFL game marks from all Disney-owned channel broadcasts, excluding Super Bowls. This includes games played on ABC. The company aired Super Bowl XXXIV, Super Bowl XXXVI and Super Bowl XL.
NBC’s broadcast of the Miami Dolphins falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in the wild-card round exclusively on Peacock drew 23 million viewers, making it the most-streamed game in NFL history. The 2023 AFC Championship Game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs on CBS averaged 53.1 million viewers.
Where has this viewership spike come from?
If you want to know the genesis of ESPN’s NFL viewership record last Saturday, you would head back to 2021 when the NFL announced its new set of national television deals with its media rightsholders partners through the 2033 season.
As part of that deal, along with ABC picking up two Super Bowls (the first in 2026), ESPN was awarded a divisional-round playoff game in addition to the company previously airing a wild-card playoff game. So it was inevitable that ESPN was going to get a massive number for this round regardless of teams. just as Fox did with its airing of the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys (that game drew 40 million on Fox).
The expansion of out-home-viewing metrics also pushes viewership numbers up. Last Saturday’s NFL record for ESPN/ABC is of course going to be shattered as the years forward given they have a Super Bowl. For a point of reference, this is not ESPN/Disney’s most-watched ever game telecast. That came on January 4, 2006, when Texas beat USC in a Rose Bowl classic. That game drew 35.6 million viewers on ABC. — Richard Deitsch, senior media reporter
