With all four games decided on the final play, NFL carriers combined to produce a 20% audience advance for the league's divisional playoff round.
Boosted by the thrilling Kansas City-Buffalo matchup that capped the weekend, the group of contests averaged 38.2 million viewers on TV and digital outlets. That is the highest for the divisional round on record dating back to 1988, according to the NFL, citing data from Nielsen Holdings PLC, Adobe Analytics and first-party digital outlets.
Including the six Wild Card games, the NFL postseason to date has averaged 33.6 million TV and digital viewers, 21% above last season and the league's best mark into the divisional round since 34.4 million watched through that stage of the 2015-16 campaign.
CBS (US) averaged 42.7 million viewers with the Chiefs' overtime win in the Jan. 23 night game. That counted as the largest audience for a divisional playoff game since 48.5 million screened Green Bay-Dallas on Jan. 15, 2017, on FOX (US).
KC-Buffalo's viewership tally represented an increase of 17.6% from the 36.3 million that watched Tampa Bay-New Orleans in that time period last season on FOX, which accounted for 35.5 million of the total, FOX Deportes (US) and digital outlets.
FOX notched the biggest percentage jump of the divisional round with its coverage of San Francisco's defeat of Green Bay at snowy Lambeau Field during prime time on Jan. 22. The average audience leaped 40.3% to 36.9 million — 35.5 million on the broadcast network and an average-minute audience of 1.4 million on the digital properties of FOX, NFL and Yahoo Sports. This was up from NBC's 26.3 million viewers for Buffalo-Baltimore in the corresponding Saturday prime-time slot in 2021.
Network officials said the 49ers-Packers telecast now stands as FOX's largest audience ever on a Saturday.
In the early game on Jan. 23, the Los Angeles Rams' dethroning of Tom Brady's Tampa Bay Buccaneers garnered 38.1 million watchers on average for NBC (US), 11.1% more than the 34.3 million CBS tackled for Cleveland-Pittsburgh in that window the prior year.
CBS opened with 30.8 million watchers for Cincinnati's upset of Tennessee, the largest audience for the late Saturday afternoon window during the divisional round in six seasons. The delivery represented a 13.7% gain from the 27.1 million who watched Green Bay-Los Angeles Rams in that window last season on FOX, FOX Deportes and digital outlets, including 26.5 million on the broadcast network alone.
Conference championship counts
As to the semifinals on Jan. 30, CBS is up first with the AFC Championship featuring Cincinnati visiting Kansas City at 3 p.m. ET, followed by FOX's presentation of the NFC Championship decider matching San Francisco against Los Angeles at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Last postseason, Tampa Bay took the measure of Green Bay in the NFC confrontation on FOX before 44.8 million viewers in the early window — 46 million when accounting for those tuning in on FOX Deportes and digital outlets. In the AFC contest on Jan. 24, 2021, Kansas City defeated Buffalo in a nightcap that averaged 41.9 million watchers on CBS.