NFL Kickoff record 28.9 million viewers watch Kansas City hold off Baltimore

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — Kansas City’s thrilling 27-20 victory over Baltimore on Thursday night was the most-watched NFL Kickoff game since it started in 2002.

The game had a total audience average of 28.9 million, surpassing the 27.6 million that watched the New England Patriots defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2015 opener on NBC. Streaming did not start getting added to audience figures until 2016.

It was a 5% increase from the 27.5 million that watched Detroit beat Kansas City in last year’s opener.

Despite the start of the game being delayed 20 minutes due to a storm that included lightning, NBC averaged 24.3 million, according to Nielsen, with the audience peaking at 33 million during the second quarter (9:30-9:45 p.m. EDT).

It also drew a 37 share on NBC, which is its largest for any regular-season game since it started carrying NFL prime time games in 2006. A share is the percentage of all television sets in use at a given time watching a program.

According to Adobe Analytics, streaming on Peacock, NBC and NFL digital platforms averaged 4.6 million.