Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs earned the first of three playoff victories necessary for the team to capture its third consecutive Super Bowl championship. The victory over the Houston Texans was broadcast live on ESPN, ABC and ESPN+ and averaged 33.8 million viewers, according to fast national data from Nielsen Media Research. As a result, the contest is the most-watched NFL game in the history of ESPN dating back to 1987. The game peaked with 39.5 million viewers during the 7 to 7:15 p.m. EST quarter-hour, marking the highest peak audience of any network on the day.
The game is up 4% year-over-year from the divisional round contest between the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens in the early Saturday window last year. This presentation is also the most-watched non-Super Bowl NFL game for The Walt Disney Company, surpassing the audience for all 25 Disney NFL Playoff games taking place in the previous 29 years. Fourteen of these games were exclusively on ABC between 1996 and 2015, one was an ESPN exclusive and 10 were available on both ABC and ESPN from 2016 to 2024.
The Chiefs-Texans game is also the most-watched matchup under play-by-play announcer Joe Buck, analyst Troy Aikman and reporter Lisa Salters, who recently completed their third season working together. With this lead NFL broadcasting team, ESPN has aired seven of its eight most-watched NFL games in history. Furthermore, it is coming off its second most-watched season of Monday Night Football in network history, which averaged 15 million viewers per game.
ESPN and The Walt Disney Company will be broadcasting Super Bowl LXI to conclude the 2026 season from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. It will mark the first time both networks are simulcasting the Super Bowl championship and the first time ESPN has aired the Big Game in its history. The company is within its third year of a 10-year media rights deal with the NFL reportedly worth $2.7 billion annually.
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