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NFL Championship Ratings Trail Last Year's Highs
29 Jan
Summary
- Seahawks-Rams NFC title game drew 46M viewers, a minor 4% increase.
- Patriots-Broncos AFC title game viewership down 15.5% year-over-year.
- Several factors may have contributed to the viewership decline.
The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks have secured their spots in Super Bowl LX, but the viewership for their respective conference championship games has fallen short of last year's numbers. The Seahawks' NFC Championship win against the Los Angeles Rams drew 46 million viewers on Fox. This figure represents a minor 4% increase over the previous year's game, but with recent Nielsen measurement adjustments, the difference is likely negligible.
Nielsen has implemented new data integration methods, including Big Data + Panel numbers and out-of-home viewing, which may naturally inflate viewership statistics by 4-6%. Despite these adjustments, the Eagles' win in 2025, based on older Panel Only metrics, reported 44.2 million viewers, suggesting a potential actual decline for the Seahawks' game.
In the AFC Championship, the Patriots' victory over the Denver Broncos garnered 48.6 million viewers on CBS. While CBS framed this as a 10% increase from last year's comparable early game, this comparison is complicated by schedule changes. Compared to last year's Chiefs-Bills game, this year's AFC title game saw a 15.5% decrease in viewership, marking it as the least-watched AFC title game since 2022.
Despite the year-over-year decline, the AFC title game remains the second most-watched game of the season, trailing only a Thanksgiving Day matchup. Viewership numbers can be affected by game time, with mid-afternoon games facing potential disadvantages. While the NFC title game aired in primetime, it also saw a significant 20% drop from last year's primetime AFC Championship. The NFL's overall postseason viewership is up 5%, and the league has experienced gains throughout the season.
