NFL rights holders scored viewership gains with their coverage of five of the six wild-card games.

The audience advance came despite five of the six wild card contests being decided by at least 16 points. The wild card round followed the NFL's second-most-watched regular season.

FOX (US) scored the largest wild card audience with its coverage of Green Bay's blowout of Dallas. The game, which aired at 4:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 14, averaged 40 million viewers, according to data from Nielsen Holdings PLC. That delivery was 20.5% greater than the 33.2 million viewers FOX tallied for its coverage of New York Giants-Minnesota Vikings in the comparable wild card window last season.

The early exit of Dallas will likely impact viewership for the upcoming divisional round. Last year, FOX's coverage of Dallas' loss to San Francisco at the stage of the NFL playoffs averaged 45.7 million viewers.

Perhaps the biggest wild card news, though, came on the streaming front. Defending champion Kansas City Chiefs' 26-7 win over the Miami Dolphins in prime time on Saturday, Jan. 13, scored an average audience of 23.0 million on Peacock, NBC stations in the participating clubs' home markets and on mobile with NFL+, according to custom fast national data from Nielsen.

The parties said the Chiefs-Dolphins game was the most streamed event ever in the US. It marked a 6% increase from the 21.8 million total audience delivery for the Jacksonville Jaguars win over the Los Angeles Chargers on NBC (US), Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, NFL Digital in the same window last season.

Comcast Corp. President Mike Cavanagh told an investor conference in early December 2023 that Peacock had 30 million paid subscribers. It is unclear how many more people signed up to access the game and will remain with the service.

NBCUniversal Media LLC paid the NFL $110 million for the wild card game, which also marked the first time an NFL rights holder aired three contests from that round in a single postseason.

When asked during a press call last week about whether to expect more NFL playoff streaming next season, NFL Media Executive Vice President and COO Hans Schroeder said: "Every Sunday night, we're going to be on Peacock. We're going to have the playoff games on Peacock as well. As it relates to the Wild Card game exclusively, we're excited to continue the conversation. This is a deal for this year, but it's an NFL playoff game. I expect there will be a lot of interest in it."

Schroeder then added the league is "excited to continue the conversation with NBC with what we do this year and [see] where those opportunities are for next year."

The exclusive streamcast no doubt benefited to some extent from a lead-in audience averaging 29.2 million for coverage of the Houston Texans' 45-17 dismantling of the Cleveland Browns across NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, NFL Digital and Telemundo (US) in the late Saturday afternoon window. That was up from the 27.5 million FOX drew for San Francisco-Seattle in the equivalent window last season. The Texans-Browns' performance ranks as the most watched Saturday NFL wild card game on NBC since 2014.

NBC Sports' prime-time coverage on Sunday, Jan. 14, of Detroit's 24-23 win over the Los Angeles Rams scored a total audience delivery of 36.0 million across NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports and NFL Digital offerings, according to data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. That was up from nearly 26.9 million for Cincinnnati-Baltimore in that slot last season. NBC's 32.1 million average viewership for Lions-Rams was the largest prime-time audience on any network since the Super Bowl in February 2023. The game also marked the Lions' first playoff victory in 32 years.

With a snowstorm shifting the Buffalo Bills-Pittsburgh Steelers matchup from the 1 p.m. ET window on Sunday to Monday at 4:30 p.m., CBS (US) averaged 31.05 million watchers on Jan. 15, as many tuned into the action on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. That was up from the 30.87 million average audience for Bills-Dolphins in the early Sunday window last season. Despite the schedule change, CBS said the delivery was the most watched AFC wild card contest on any network in four years.

The Monday Night wild card window was the only one that saw an audience retreat from the prior year. Coverage of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 32-9 romp of the Philadelphia Eagles averaged 29.2 million across ESPN (US), ABC (US), ESPN2 (US), ESPN+ and NFL+ on Jan. 15.

During the comparable window last season in what turned out to be Tom Brady's last game, Dallas-Tampa averaged 31.2 million viewers across platforms, representing the high-water viewership mark for ESPN Inc. with the wild card playoff round.