Over the weekend, fans were treated to the first games in the NFL Playoffs, but one specific game from the NFL Super Wild Card Weekend between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins saw as many as 23 million viewers. This was considered a record-breaking streaming number in the United States, and this was made exclusive through Comcast and NBC's Peacock platform.
NBC boasted of the new record as this NFL playoff game was a streaming exclusive, but the question now is if the league would resort to this setup, trumping its traditional broadcast availability moving forward.
NFL Playoff Record: 23M Viewers for Streaming-Exclusive Game
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - JANUARY 13: Tua Tagovailoa #1 of the Miami Dolphins runs as he is pursued by Mike Edwards #21 of the Kansas City Chiefs during the second half in the AFC Wild Card Playoffs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on January 13, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.
David Eulitt/Getty Images
A report by Nielsen revealed that Peacock saw as much as 23 million average streaming viewers for the Chiefs and Dolphins game last Sunday, and this is despite the exclusive availability on Comcast and NBC's platform. To be more precise and account for the broadcast numbers of this specific game, it recorded a total of 27.6 million, accounting for its TV availability in the Miami and Kansas City areas.
However, before the game, fans were not amused with the idea of this game being exclusively streaming on Peacock only, as it was known that NFL playoff games were made available on renowned national TV networks.
For viewers outside the Miami and Kansas areas, Peacock was the only platform they watch the event, and many complained about the need to sign up for the service.
Comcast, NBC's Peacock: All-Time High for the Live Game
With this, NBC celebrated this major milestone which Peacock achieved for this game alone, calling it the "most streamed event ever."
The media company also regarded this specific game to be a "milestone moment in media and sports history."
Compared to last year's wildcard round, the numbers now are inferior as it recorded 28.4 million viewers per game, but is close enough to be considered a win for streaming.
NFL's Streaming Platforms and Partners
In one of the most monumental changes in NFL's games availability, the team cut its ties with its long-time partner, DirecTV, a known traditional broadcast company, in favor of YouTube TV for the Sunday Ticket. This change took place in late 2022, and one year later, the partnership is seeing its mutual benefits, with a massive number of games available to stream via the platform.
On the other hand, there is Thursday Night Football which now moved exclusively to Amazon Prime Video, offering weekly games to the public.
And while Peacock was not yet named as an exclusive partner of the NFL for football streams, the recent playoff game proved to be beneficial to the company, and there were no records of outages.
While the NFL is known for broadcasting its games to various traditional TV channels and platforms, it remains unknown if its move towards streaming will soon begin, partnering with multiple companies. But as what is seen now, NFL's games are available in around four streaming platforms, with the latest Sunday game seeing a record number on Peacock, despite the fans' initial complaints.
