Ravens season opening loss to Chiefs on NBC was most watch NFL kickoff game ever

The NFL is big business, and that business really booms when star power is involved in huge matchups.

The NFL’s season-opening kickoff game featured the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs in a rematch of last winter’s AFC Championship game , which the Chiefs won, 17-10.

The rematch on NBC and Peacock set records on Thursday night, peaking at almost 29 million viewers, the network announced on Friday before the Eagles and Packers showdown.

A rematch of last season’s AFC Championship Game headlined by star quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, Ravens-Chiefs averaged an NFL Kickoff Game-record Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 28.9 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, based on live plus same day custom fast nationals from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics. Ravens-Chiefs topped viewership for last year’s NFL Kickoff Game opener by 5% (27.5 million for Lions-Chiefs).

NBC Sports’ coverage peaked at 33 million viewers in the second quarter (between 9:30-9:45 p.m. ET).

The Average Minute Audience (AMA) for last night’s live stream via Peacock, NBC Sports Digital platforms, and NFL Digital platforms, was 4.6 million viewers – the 2nd most simulstreamed NBC NFL game ever, topping three NBC Super Bowls (trailing only Super Bowl LVI in 2022) – and up 65% from last year’s NFL Kickoff Game (2.8 million).

Kansas City and Baltimore were the top markets, but all the AFC North cities like Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland played a major role in the record-breaking viewership.

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