or


[01/20/25 - 08:46 AM]
Rewrite the Record Books: Texans at Chiefs Deliver 32.7 Million Viewers, ESPN's Most-Watched NFL Game Ever
ESPN's Texans-Chiefs viewership is expected to surpass 33 million viewers when Nielsen reports the final audience this week.
[via press release from ESPN]

Rewrite the Record Books: Texans at Chiefs Deliver 32.7 Million Viewers, ESPN's Most-Watched NFL Game Ever

Viewership Expected to Exceed 33 Million Viewers When Nielsen Reports Final Audience

Audience Already Surpasses Every NFL Game - Regular Season or Playoffs - on ESPN Dating Back to 1987

Across All Networks, NFL's Best Viewership for a Divisional Saturday Afternoon Kickoff in 10 Seasons

Third Consecutive Season ESPN Punctuates Season-Long NFL Campaign with Its Most-Watched NFL Game Ever

ESPN's 2025 NFL Divisional Round presentation delivered a record-breaking audience across ESPN platforms, as the Houston Texans at the Kansas City Chiefs (Saturday, Jan. 18, 4:30 p.m. ET) is the company's most-watched NFL game of all-time. The 32.7 million viewers surpass each NFL on ESPN game, playoffs and regular season, since 1987 (38 seasons), the first year when the network aired NFL games.

ESPN's Texans-Chiefs viewership is expected to surpass 33 million viewers when Nielsen reports the final audience this week. The current viewership of 32.7 million viewers includes the vast majority, but not all audiences from ESPN, ABC and ESPN+.

Additional ESPN's Texans-Chiefs Viewership Highlights:

NFL's Best Divisional Saturday Afternoon Viewership in 10 Seasons: ESPN's Texans-Chiefs viewership is the NFL's top audience for a Divisional Saturday afternoon (4:30 p.m. kickoff) in 10 seasons, beginning in January 2016 to present, across all networks.

ESPN Up Year-Over-Year: ESPN bested its own audience from the 2024 Divisional Round, which was also played on the same day and time slot, and earned a then-record audience of 32.3 million viewers.

ESPN Delivers Saturday's Top Peak Audience Across All Networks: ESPN's audience peaked at 38.5 million viewers (7-7:15 p.m.), the highest peak audience of any network on Saturday, Jan. 18.

Disney's Most-Watched Non-Super Bowl NFL Game: ESPN's Texans-Chiefs' 32.7 million viewers marks Disney's most-watched NFL game, excluding Super Bowls.

The audience bested all 25 Disney NFL Playoff games in the previous 29 years, including 14 exclusively on ABC (1996-2005), ten available on ABC and ESPN (2016-24) and one solely on ESPN (2015).

The game also surpassed every regular season game exclusively on ABC since 1996.

Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Lisa Salters Era Deliver ESPN's Most-Watched Games

ESPN re-writing its own record books has become a modern trend, as each season of the Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, and Lisa Salters era (2022-23, 23-24, and 24-25 seasons) has concluded with ESPN airing its most-watched game of all-time. In that same period, accounting for all games in regular season and postseason, ESPN has aired seven of its eight most-watched games.

ESPN's Most-Watched NFL Games Ever, Dating Back to 1987

Rank NFL Season Date Game Viewership Monday Night Football or Playoff Game

1 2024-25 January 18, 2025 Houston Texans at Kansas City Chiefs 32,701,000 Divisional Playoff

2 2023-24 January 20, 2024 Houston Texans at Baltimore Ravens 32,306,000 Divisional Playoff

3 2022-23 January 16, 2023 Dallas Cowboys at Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31,201,000 Wild Card Playoff

4 2023-24 January 15, 2024 Philadelphia Eagles at Tampa Bay Buccaneers 29,135,000 Wild Card Playoff

5 2023-24 November 20, 2023 Philadelphia Eagles at Kansas City Chiefs 28,962,000 Monday Night Football

6 2023-24 December 25, 2023 Baltimore Ravens at San Francisco 49ers 27,616,000 Monday Night Football

7 2019-20 January 4, 2020 Buffalo Bills at Houston Texans 26,973,000 Wild Card Playoff

8 2023-24 December 30, 2023 Detroit Lions at Dallas Cowboys 26,061,000 Monday Night Football

All ESPN-produced games. All games aired on, at least, ESPN and ABC, except Christmas Day game which was only on ABC. Viewership above does not include ESPN Deportes for historical purposes

Record Breaking Playoff Viewership Adds to ESPN's Strong 2024-25 Season

ESPN's record-breaking playoff viewership concludes the company's 2024-25 season which delivered Monday Night Football's second most-watched season in the ESPN era, joining the 2023 campaign as the two most- watched MNF seasons (2006 - present). This season, Monday Night Football averaged 15 million viewers a game and reached 112 million fans along the way.

Please note: ESPN's viewership for Postseason NFL Countdown, which led into Texans-Chiefs Divisional game, will be available when final audiences are reported this week. Disney's ownership of ABC/ESPN began February 1996. Disney has aired Super Bowl XXXIV, Super Bowl XXXVI, and Super Bowl XL.

-30-





  [january 2025]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
   


· MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL (ESPN)




most recent ratings | view all posts
[07/22/25 - 03:03 PM]
ABC News' "Nightline" Ranks No. 1 in Adults 18-49, Leading CBS' "After Midnight" and NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers" in the Demo for the 6th Consecutive Week
"Nightline" posted week-to-week increases in Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49, hitting a 4-week high in the key Adult news demo.
[07/22/25 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10 Week of July 14: "Untamed" Hunts and "KPop Demon Hunters" Slay in This Week's Top 10
True crime lovers also made their voices heard - documentary series "Amy Bradley Is Missing" appeared at No. 2 on the English TV list, with 12.2 million views.
[07/22/25 - 10:30 AM]
2025 NBA Las Vegas Summer League Viewership Up Double Digits
Said telecasts averaged an audience of 255,000 viewers, up 27% from last year.
[07/22/25 - 08:04 AM]
ESPN, ABC and Disney+ Score Historic Viewership for 2025 WNBA All-Star Events
The Skills Challenge & 3-Point Contest and the WNBA All-Star Game averaged 1.3 million viewers and 2.2 million viewers, respectively.
[07/21/25 - 10:09 AM]
ESPN's Outstanding Nielsen Viewership for First Six Months of 2025: At the Halfway Mark, ESPN has Achieved Multiple Successes Across the Board
ESPN on its own is up 4% year-over-year across the entire day (24 hours of programming) and up 9% when isolating the primetime hours (8-11 p.m. ET).
[07/17/25 - 01:31 PM]
Netflix: What We Watched the First Half of 2025
This report, which captures ~99% of all viewing in the first half of 2025, shows that people watched a lot of Netflix - over 95B hours - spanning a wide range of genres and languages.

[07/17/25 - 09:57 AM]
"Dexter: Resurrection" Debuts to a Killer 3.1 Million Cross-Platform Viewers
Said premiere was up 44% versus "Dexter: Original Sin" and 79% versus "Dexter: New Blood."
[07/16/25 - 04:01 PM]
ESPN Airs Another of Its Most-Watched WNBA Games Ever: Indiana Fever vs Connecticut Sun Averaged 1.7 Million Viewers, Up 48% from Last Year's ESPN Average
Said telecast peaked with 2 million viewers.
[07/15/25 - 02:06 PM]
Viewership for 2025 T-Mobile Home Run Derby Exclusively on ESPN Platforms Up Five Percent From Last Year
An average audience of 5,729,000 viewers watched the event, compared to 5,451,000 viewers in 2024.

[07/15/25 - 01:04 PM]
ABC News' "Nightline" Ranks No. 1 in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49 vs. CBS' "After Midnight" and NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers" for 2nd Consecutive Week
"Nightline" posted Total Viewer gains both week to week and year to year.
[07/15/25 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10 Week of July 7: "KPop Demon Hunters" Spends Another Golden Week at No. 1 in This Week's Top 10
"The Sandman's" second season entered the Top 10 in 89 countries last week, while claiming the No. 1 spot in English TV with 5.9 million views.
[07/15/25 - 09:04 AM]
ABC Airs Another of Its Most-Watched WNBA Games Ever: Dallas Wings vs Indiana Fever Averaged 2.1 Million Viewers, Up 69% from Last Year's ABC Average
Said audience peaked with 2.5 million viewers.
[07/14/25 - 06:08 PM]
"Celebrity Family Feud" Returns with Best Premiere in Three Years
Overall, the season 11 premiere notched the show's best performance for any telecast in Total Viewers (4.16 million) and Adults 18-49 (0.42 rating) since 8/28/22 and 8/13/23, respectively.

[07/14/25 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix and MVP's Taylor-Serrano 3 Goes the Distance with Nearly 6 Million Global Viewers
In the US, an estimated AMA of 4.2 million viewers tuned in to the main event (Live+1) according to VideoAmp and Netflix, making it the most-watched professional women's sports event of 2025.

[07/11/25 - 12:45 PM]
ABC Concludes September to May Season with Top Five Shows Among Adults 18-49 Including "High Potential," "Abbott Elementary," "The Rookie," "Shifting Gears" and "9-1-1"
Continuing to lead among broadcast series, ABC's "High Potential" stood as the No. 1 new drama among Total Viewers (16.41 million) and No. 1 new show among Adults 18-49 (3.85 rating).