Peacock scored a touchdown Saturday for its first NFL playoff game exclusively shown on the NBCUniversal-owned streamer, registering record ratings and internet usage for the matchup in the freezing cold between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins.
The “Peacock Exclusive Wild Card” game garnered 23 million total viewers, according to Nielsen. NBC said in a release that the game sets records for the “most-streamed live event in US history” and was also responsible for the most internet usage ever in the US on a single date, consuming 30% of internet traffic during the Saturday night game.
That number also includes viewership figures from the local NBC affiliates in Miami and Kansas City and on the NFL+ mobile app, where the game was also shown outside of Peacock.
Notably, the ratings for the exclusively streamed game was up 6% over last year’s primetime AFC Wild Card Game that was shown on NBC’s broadcast network.
Overall, Saturday was a good day for Peacock, which lost $2.8 billion last year for its parent company Comcast but is growing in paid subscribers. The streamer had its ”largest single day ever in audience usage, engagement and time spent, with a record 16.3 million concurrent devices,” NBC said, but it didn’t reveal how many new subscribers were added.
Last year, Peacock got its first-ever price hike to $5.99 per month. In addition to the NFL, the platform also streams English Premier League soccer, some MLB games, WWE and college football.
It helped that there weren’t any technical issues from people flooding Peacock with sign-ups or heavy usage or a sustained backlash despite some ire from fans and lawmakers.
“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,” said Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, in a release. “It’s a very proud moment.”
The monster ratings shouldn’t come as a surprise since the NFL has enjoyed a steady increase in viewership. A Sportico report, citing Nielsen ratings, found that last year the NFL made up 93 of the top 100 broadcast programs. That’s compared to 82 in 2022 and 72 in 2020. Its revenue also grew to roughly $12 billion in 2022, up from $8 billion per year in 2010, according to some reports. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said he wants to see $25 billion in yearly league revenue by 2027.
Taylor Swift’s high-profile relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is one element that might have drawn in some viewers who didn’t watch NFL games in the past. In the October Chiefs-Jets thriller attended by Swift and a star-studded entourage, the broadcast had a surge of more than 2 million female viewers. It recorded an average of 27 million viewers overall, which NBC said at the time made it the most-watched Sunday show since the 2023 Super Bowl.
CNN’s Ramishah Maruf contributed to this report.
