ESPN’s Monday Night Football had its two most-watched games happen within five weeks of each other.
Christmas night’s contest between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers drew 27.6 million viewers, making it the second most-watched MNF game since 1996. This puts it behind only the Week 11 Super Bowl rematch between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, which drew 29 million viewers. However, Ravens/49ers peaked at a higher number than Eagles/Chiefs, at 31.4 million versus 31.2 million.
Year-over-year, the Ravens-49ers audience was up 61 percent from last year’s Christmas night game between the Buccaneers at Cardinals, which aired on NBC. Ratings for this game were up 152 percent compared to last season’s Week 16 MNF game between the Chargers and Colts.
Focusing on all Christmas day games, Ravens/49ers ranks among the top four most-watched NFL games across all networks since 1994.
2023 has been good for Monday Night Football. Outside of notching its two most-watched games ever, MNF averages 16.6 million viewers this season, which is up 30 percent inclusive of all linear games.
