Take a pinch of Patrick Mahomes, a dash of Lamar Jackson, add some Taylor Swift swing and an amazing finish.
What is that formula equal to? The most watched NFL Kickoff Game of all time.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ thrilling 27-20 win over the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night averaged 28.9 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, based on live plus same-day custom fast nationals from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics. The game surpassed viewership for last year’s season opener (27.5 million for Detroit Lions-Chiefs) by five percent.
NBC said the game peaked at 33 million viewers in the second quarter (between 9:30 and 9:45 pm ET). Lightning delayed kickoff until 8:40 pm ET, which likely dropped the audience, due to the late conclusion of the game at 11:55 pm ET.
NBC said it drew 4.6 million viewers on its digital platforms, up 65 percent from last year’s NFL Kickoff Game (2.8 million viewers).
The top three measured markets for the game (based on 44 available markets) were Kansas City, Baltimore and Denver.
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(Photo: Scott Winters / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
