Two seasons after the Detroit Lions narrowly defeated the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL Kickoff Game, the teams delivered another tight contest that kept viewers on edge well into the fourth quarter. Sunday Night Football’s contest between the Detroit pulled to within three points of Kansas City with 46 seconds remaining, but Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs held on for a 30-17 victory, captivating audiences across NBC and Peacock.
The matchup drew 27.3 million viewers, making it the fourth Sunday Night Football game in 2025 to exceed 25 million viewers. The figure marks the most games with 25 million viewers through Week 6 in the history of NBC SNF, equaling the entire 2024 season’s total, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel and Adobe Analytics.
The Lions-Chiefs game also ranks as the second-most-watched October game in NBC SNF history. Only Tom Brady’s return to New England in 2021, when he led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 19-17 win over the Patriots, drew a larger audience of 28.4 million. Andrew Luck’s Colts, which defeated Peyton Manning’s Broncos 39-33 in 2013, rounds out the top three with 26.9 million viewers.
The audience for Sunday’s game peaked at 30.6 million during the second quarter, from 9:15 to 9:30 p.m. ET, as the teams traded the lead in a high-stakes showdown between the prior season’s top playoff seeds from each conference.
Through Week 6, NBC’s Sunday Night Football is averaging 25.2 million viewers across its linear and streaming platforms. This marks the strongest six-week start in the 20-season history of the broadcast and an 11% increase over the same period in 2024.
Streaming numbers also hit new heights. SNF is off to its best six-week digital start ever, averaging 3.0 million viewers across Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL Digital platforms, up 10% from last season, according to Adobe Analytics.
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