Peacock’s NFL Playoff-Exclusive Sets Live-Streaming Records
The stream of the Dolphins-Chiefs AFC playoff game also set new highs in U.S. internet usage
Story Highlights
While seemingly unpopular among a subset of fans on social media, Saturday night’s NFL Playoff game — which was exclusively delivered on NBC’s Peacock — delivered historic streaming viewership numbers.
According to Nielsen, the Peacock Exclusive AFC Wild Card reached 27.6 million total viewers, making it the most-streamed live event in U.S. history. A release from NBC Sports also stated that it’s the largest single American event in the history of the internet, consuming approximately 30% of internet traffic during the game window.
The AFC Wild Card Round matchup between the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs (which the Chiefs ultimately won 26-7) marked the first time that the NFL delivered a playoff game exclusively to a national audience on a streaming service.
“From NBC Sports and Peacock to the Comcast team, our entire company worked seamlessly to plan for this game and executed flawlessly to deliver a streaming experience with the NFL on a scale that’s never been done before,” Comcast Corp. Chairman/CEO Brian Roberts said in the official release. “It’s a very proud moment.”
To dive deeper into the Nielsen numbers, the release also outlines that the stream netted an average audience (AMA) of approximately 23.0 million viewers across Peacock and NBC stations in Miami and Kansas City and on mobile with NFL+. That’s a 6% increase from the same primetime AFC Wild Card window a year ago (21.8 million TAD on NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, NFL Digital). Additionally, the stream peaked at an average of 24.6 million viewers in the second quarter (9:15-9:30 p.m. ET), which includes out-of-home viewership.
NOTE: According to the NBC Sports release, viewership figures are based on custom fast national live + same day data from Nielsen. Official national data for the Peacock Exclusive AFC Wild Card will be available on Friday.
“We couldn’t be prouder of our partnership with Peacock and are thrilled with the results of the first-ever exclusively live-streamed NFL Playoff game,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “To best serve our fans, we need to ensure games are available to them as their viewing habits change, and this includes digital distribution as we continue to help shape the future of the sports and entertainment industry.”
Unsurprisingly, NBC also says that it was the largest single day in Peacock’s history in terms of audience usage, engagement, and time spent. A record 16.3 million concurrent devices accessed the app.
Earlier on Saturday, NBC Sports also broadcast the AFC Wild Card game between the Cleveland Browns and the Houston Texans. Though streamed on Peacock, it was done so as a simulcast for the game broadcast on over-the-air NBC affiliates across the country, as well as on Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL Digital. That game ranked as the most-watched Saturday NFL Wild Card game on NBC since 2014. Led by Peacock, it also pulled in a digital average minute audience of 3.1 million viewers, making it NBC Sports’ largest streaming simulcast of an NFL game not including a Super Bowl.
